Missed Opportunities of the Past are Learning Opportunities in the Present

REL

This is possibly going to sound like name dropping and bragging, it’s not because I’m going somewhere with this so follow me.

Many years ago I rapped with Ice T in a club called The Workshop in Los Angeles, California. I blew off an opportunity to do some work with Lil Jon back in 1998 during Freaknic in Atlanta, Georgia before he blew up because I was doing my own thing and he didn’t seem very important to me. In retrospect, how silly was that?!?! I met Stevie Wonder while working as the DJ for his celebrity roast when I was 16.

Yes, I was rockin the two wheels of steel way back then. I’ve had two record deals, I’ve been extended offers for sit down meetings with the likes of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and, although it didn’t pan out, in 1990 I met with the manager of Chaka Khan in Munich, Germany to discuss producing songs for her. I’ve even met Prince and had a few words of exchange with him.

I have an old friend, whom I used to work with, that started his personal security business in a small room in his house ten years ago with just a vision. Today Elijah’s company, ICON Protection, is major. He has worked with major celebrities including 50 Cent and was recently featured on the cover of Black Enterprise magazine.

Two things stand out about the folks I’ve mentioned and the many I haven’t:

1. Each of these people are just people…just people, just people. I repeated it because in my experience I have missed great opportunities as a result of having identifying them as more than or less than that.
2. These people operate excellently in their chosen field. Just people doing a great job in their chosen profession.

While having a great deal of respect for celebrities (just people operating excellently within their chosen field,) I am learning to remove titles and engage people with little or no attention being paid to status or lack thereof. I have missed opportunities on both sides of the equation because of status judgments.

I had a great amount of interest coming from Lil Jon about doing some tracks with him but because he was an unknown I didn’t make time for him or the opportunity. On the other side of the equation I never sat down with Jimmy and Terry because at that time, 1994, I felt like an unknown with little to offer them even though they expressed interest in me.

They were just people holding opportunities that I missed simply because I judged them and, in some respects myself, as more than or less than people holding opportunities to exchange; to learn, to grow and to get paid either directly through them or through the connections they would have provided me.

God knows what they would have received even if I don’t. This all comes to mind right now because I desire to see all people as people holding opportunities for me; to teach or to be taught, to give to and receive from, to be a connection and to connect.

Realizing that sometimes the clearest vision is hindsight, I walk forward recalling what I’ve experienced and knowing today I am a person holding opportunities for others as they also hold for me. The old beggar and the young child hold something for me, just as I hold something for you. Come get it!

Just my thoughts.