I was reading the Sunday comics the other day when I came across this statement. I think it was in Hi and Lois or maybe Arlo and Janis, one of those deep philosophical strips. One of the characters says to another, “He’s the kind of guy that when he hears opportunity knocking, he complains about the noise.” I love that. Not only because it’s funny, but because it’s also true.

I think there are so many of us who do not recognize opportunity when it’s right in front of us. One of the things IT companies always like to brag about is how powerful their firewalls are. You know what I’m talking about, you’ll hear them proudly say things like. “Our firewall is stopping twenty thousand spam emails a day!” Or “Don’t bother sending emails with attachments, we’ll block them!” I’m sure you’ve heard these statements, right? But did you ever think about this: 

How many of those blocked emails actually had great opportunities in them? 

Of those twenty thousand that the IT guy’s firewall blocked, how many had potential business offers? Think about that.

How often are we hearing opportunities knock and we complain about the noise?

If you’re in business, or better yet if you’re in sales you should be looking for any opportunity you can get your hands on. In fact, possible opportunities being among all those blocked emails should be keeping you up at night.

Look, before you IT guys go off the deep end and start having visions of what could have happened with Y2K (and didn’t by the way) I am not advocating letting all emails through, all I am saying is couldn’t we just try applying a little common sense?

It’s like those passwords where you have to use all of those comic book swear words “**&%$&” to make sure your password is secure. Does that make any sense? Especially when after going through all of that pain in the neck password creating the company you are trying to access announces that they have been hacked and the hackers got away with two million email addresses and passwords!

One more question. Why does Apple streaming need my password every three weeks? Do they think someone is going to come into my living room and steal my movies? Really?

Okay that’s all well and good and fun…but is it really? Now let’s get down to some much more serious stuff.

Let me ask you these questions:

If you are in sales why do you ever have an “out of office” message? If you are in sales you are on all the time. That’s why we have email, that’s why we have smart phones so that we can be reached anytime day and night. Sorry, that comes with the territory. This is another perfect example of when you hear opportunity knocking, you complain about the noise.

Here’s another one. If you are in sales or in business, why isn’t your phone number with your Linkedin contact information? Are you afraid someone is going to call you? This is another perfect example of when you hear opportunity knocking, you complain about the noise.

Or if you’re in sales, especially if you have a rep firm, why don’t you have all of your partners’ contact information on your company web site? Are you afraid a customer might be able to get in touch with you? This is another perfect example of when you hear opportunity knocking, you complain about the noise.

If you’re in sales, nay if you’re in business at all your job is to be found. Your job is to be easy to be found. Your job is to have as many people call you as possible. Sorry if you think this is a nuisance, this is your job. People have to be able to get to you. That is the only way you are going to be successful. Otherwise, you’ll be that guy who when you hear opportunity knocking, you complain about the noise.

Okay now let’s switch gears and go to the other side of the desk. If you’re a buyer you should want to talk to people. I know, I know, you are going to get a lot of calls, but so what? Some of those calls could be saving your company a ton of money. The next great solution could be waiting around the corner on that next call. When did we get so scared of talking with people? When did we get so paranoid about taking a simple phone call?

So, what are you going to do the next time opportunity knocks? You’re going to open the door wide open, right? Of course you are, it’s only common sense.