Article 5 - Making the most of opportunites by Pti Worldwide

Article 5 - Making the most of opportunites

“Opportunities are slipping past you every single day!” Every minute of every day opportunities are all around us. The challenge is, if you’re not awake and if you’re not focused and conscious in your thinking and actions, then these opportunities will slip quietly past you and you won’t even know they were there! What really drove this home for me was reading an article in the Sunday Times. It was about Barclay’s acquisition of Lehman Brothers – arguably one of the shrewdest acquisitions of this entire financial crisis. I’ve taken an extract from the article to reinforce my message and have highlighted in bold the key parts... Sunday Times, 14th June 2009 “BOB DIAMOND cut a forlorn figure on the New York pavement one Sunday evening last September as he walked with his wife and daughter. The president of Barclays and Head of Barclays Capital, its investment-banking arm, had been told that, after three days of frantic negotiations to buy Lehman Brothers, the deal was off. Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, was not prepared to give government guarantees to secure the deal, particularly to a British interloper. Lehman was to be put into bankruptcy the next day. Diamond’s daughter knew how disappointed her father would be and had travelled from her university on the outskirts of the city to be with him. But then came an unexpected call from Bart McDade, Lehman’s Chief Operating Officer. McDade offered an alternative solution. If Barclays couldn’t buy the whole of Lehman, what about buying only the American arm — the most valuable part of the international business – out of bankruptcy. Diamond said: “A lot of people since then have said that was a very clever position to have got yourself into. But the honest truth was it never dawned on us.” That call will be etched in Diamond’s memory. The bankruptcy of Lehman is now considered to be Paulson’s biggest error – it helped to trigger a collapse in global banking and shattered confidence. For Barclays, it presented the opportunity of a generation. For the price of Lehman’s New York building – which it would need anyway – and two data centres, Barclays bought one of Wall Street’s prized names which, even the week before its collapse, was still seeing record revenues in its equities business.” What’s the critical message in here? www.roystonguest.com

Opportunities do not always appear with a tag saying “a great opportunity for you – don’t miss out!” They are often disguised as problems, challenges or clothed in some other guise. One chance phone call is all it took for Bob Diamond! By his own admission the opportunity with Lehman’s was cloaked in a full acquisition of the entire business. Not once had it crossed his mind to simply acquire just one part and now they have the prized asset! So, my questions for you are these? Are you grasping the opportunities which are circling you every single day? Are you present, awake, focused and ready for action? Never have there been more opportunities – the only question is; Are you ready for them? Remember, opportunities don’t always knock on the door!