Every negative situation contains the possibility for something positive, an opportunity. It is how you look at it that matters.

        The Fearless Approach

  • Events in life are not negative or positive. They are completely neutral.
  • Things merely happen to you. It is your mind that chooses to interpret them as negative or positive.
  • Mentally framing a negative event as a blessing in disguise makes it easier for you to move forward. It is a kind of mental alchemy, transforming shit into sugar.
  • Understand: we live in a society of relative prosperity, but in many ways this turns out to be a detriment to our spirit. We come to feel that we naturally deserve good things, that we have certain privileges due to us. When setbacks occur, it is almost a personal affront or punishment.
  • We either blame other people or we blame ourselves. In both cases, we lose valuable time and become unnecessarily emotional.
  • You must adopt an attitude that is the opposite to how most people think and operate. When things are going well, that is precisely when you must be concerned and vigilant. You know it will not last and you will not be caught unprepared. When things are going badly, that is when you are most encouraged and fearless.

    Keys to Fearlessness

  • This attitude is what we shall call “opportunism.” True opportunists do not require urgent, stressful circumstances to become alert and inventive. They operate this way on a daily basis.
  • This power is open to each and every one of us if we put into practice the following four principles of the art.

    MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE

  • But a different possibility exists for us as well — the realization that more resources are not necessarily coming from the outside and that we must use what we already have to better effect.
  • When we go to work with what is there, we find new ways to employ this material. We solve problems, develop skills we can use again and again, and build up our confidence. If we become wealthy and dependent on money and technology, our minds atrophy and that wealth will not last.

        TURN ALL OBSTACLES INTO OPENINGS

  • An opportunist in life sees all hindrances as instruments for power. The reason is simple: negative energy that comes at you in some form is energy that can be turned around — to defeat an opponent and lift you up.
  • In general, obstacles force your mind to focus and find ways around them. They heighten your mental powers and should be welcomed.

    LOOK FOR TURNING POINTS

  • Opportunities exist in any field of tension — heated competition, anxiety, chaotic situations. Something important is going on and if you are able to determine the underlying cause, you can create for yourself a powerful opportunity.
  • Look for any sudden successes or failures in the business world that people find hard to explain. These are often indications of shifts going on under the surface; perhaps someone has inadvertently hit upon a new model for doing things and you must analyze this.
  • Examine the greatest anxieties of those on the inside of any business or industry. Deep changes going on usually register as fear to those who do not know how to deal with them. You can be the first to exploit such changes for positive purposes.
  • Keep your eye out for any kind of shifts in tastes or values. People in the media or the establishment will often rail against these changes, seeing them as signs of moral decline and chaos. People fear the new. You can turn this into an opportunity by being the first to give some meaning to this apparent disorder, establishing it as a positive value. You are not looking for fads, but deep – rooted changes in people’s tastes. One opportunity you can always bank on is that a younger generation will react against the sacred cows of the older generation.

    MOVE BEFORE YOU ARE READY

  • Most people wait too long to go into action, generally out of fear. They want more money or better circumstances. You must go the opposite direction and move before you think you are ready. It is as if you are making it a little more difficult for yourself, deliberately creating obstacles in your path. But it is a law of power that your energy will always rise to the appropriate level. When you feel that you must work harder to get to your goal because you are not quite prepared, you are more alert and inventive. This venture has to succeed and so it will.
  • Remember: as Napoleon said, the moral is to the physical as three to one — meaning the motivation and energy levels you or your army bring to the encounter have three times as much weight as your physical resources.

    Reversal of Perspective

    Opportunism comes with a belief system that is eminently positive and powerful — one known to the Stoic philosophers of ancient Rome as amor fati, or love of fate.