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Dear Jacky,
When I was in grad school, I had a really distinguished professor. I mean a lot of professors are distinguished but this professor was especially accomplished. If there was a pyramid of how accomplished and distinguished and impactful a person is in their field, he would undoubtedly be at the very apex of the pyramid of distinguished people. I had the good fortune of ending up in one of his classes. Students would talk about how big of a deal this professor was in the hallways but if you walked in his class or saw him in the hallway you’d never know. He was humble and never made note of his storied career. The only indicator of his importance was when he would casually say things like I’ve got to leave class on time today, I have a flight to xyz city but I’ll be back tomorrow for office hours. The man literally flew in and out of cities for meetings on the same day, that’s how important he was. I sat in his class for an entire semester and he never brought light to his accomplishments. On the very last day of class, he gave a brief recap of his experience and career and opened the floor for questions.
I don’t remember the exact question that prompted this answer or who asked the question. Back at that time, I often asked guest speakers for their best piece of advice or what they felt like they did that set their career trajectory apart from all the people around them. I wanted to know what the secret sauce was for this type of success. So I listened very intently to the answers he gave that day. I can’t recall exactly or be sure I’m recounting word for word but the sentiment is on point. He said something along the lines of, “When opportunity knocks, it only knocks once.” He proceeded to explain that opportunity is only guaranteed to knock once and if you don’t take it, it’s never guaranteed to knock again but if you do take an opportunity it can breed more opportunity.
It’s been over 10 years and I still remember that snippet of advice. I think sometimes we get so caught up in our lives, we forget to pause and to really take it all in. We forget to really listen to those older than us, those wiser than us, those who have walked the path before us. I carry these little snippets with me. They are little mantras, little rules in my life’s rule book, little things that make big differences. A few years after that I was searching for a job. To this day, I look back and think of how all the little pieces aligned for this opportunity. I decided I wanted to move to a certain city and I had already begun applying to jobs. In my head, I wasn’t planning to move just yet. I planned to make it to a certain mile marker at my current job before I moved to a new job. I had an especially bad day at my current job and I walked out of the office that day and decided that was the last straw, I was leaving. I went home that night and ended up on the career site for MBA students from my university. I wasn’t an MBA student, I don’t even know how I ended up on that page besides by accident while trying to search for jobs under my degree program. When I put the filters on there were 2 or 3 job postings that matched and one, one was a really, really cool job. I looked at the skills and I checked every box and I applied.
A few days later I received a request for a phone interview. I made up some excuse to not go to lunch with coworkers and drove my car to a shopping center parking lot. I had a piece of computer paper with everything I could possibly fit off their website on it. I completed my phone interview and the person said well if I happened to come down to the area for another interview let them know and they’d set up an interview with me while I was in town.
“Molly, when we swing, we swing for the fences.”
my brother
I went home that night, it was a Friday night. I remember this because I worked a job where I would have to work Saturdays and I was sitting at home on Friday night writing a follow up email knowing I had to go to work the next day which was so depressing. I Googled how to write a follow up email and clicked on a template. It had each paragraph and what should go in the paragraph. One of the paragraphs said, “Tell them why you want to work for them,” and I started writing and when I finished I had the longest follow up email that had ever been written. It was full of passion. I always wish I had a copy of that email but it’s in the sent box of an account that I no longer have access to. To this day, it may be the most epic email I’ve ever written.
I read it over and thought wow this is long, maybe too long and maybe a bit too much. I should ask for a second opinion. I went down my list of family members but since it was a Friday night no one answered but one, my brother, who was still in high school. I told him I was more worried about falling through the cracks than I was about standing out. I read him my email and I’ll forever remember what he said. He said, “Molly, when we swing, we swing for the fences.” So I hung up the phone and then I hit send. I did not hear anything for an entire week. Mid-week I was certain that I wasn’t hearing anything back. I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn’t super upset about it. Again, I knew this job was a dream job and it was unlikely I would hear back. One week later, I got an email asking me to come down to their Corporate Office for an interview.
I went to their office and I had 3 interviews. I studied their website like I was studying for a Final Exam. My first interview, the person said, “We don’t cure cancer or anything here but we do make a difference.” to which I replied, “Actually, you donate x amount of money to this cancer nonprofit. So you do cure cancer.” The person laughed and said well then I guess we do cure cancer here. My second interview, I was prepared to answer my biggest weakness until they asked me for my Top 3. We got off on a tangent and he let me off with only 2 weaknesses. Then I proceeded through my 3rd interview and then I went home.
I remember I tweeted that day like a young 20-something about how no matter what I got to tour this cool office and meet 3 really important people. Just an indicator that my mindset was to appreciate the experience. I was told I would hear something in a week. When a week passed, I assumed it was over, I didn’t get the job. I was disappointed but again I wasn’t that tied to the outcome. I went into that job interview like it was my job. I put my best foot forward. I knew I did the best I could and if it didn’t work out, it was a dream job, I wasn’t expecting it to. Two weeks after I interviewed, I saw a number with the area code pop up and I knew it was them but I couldn’t answer it. Later, I received an email with a job offer.
Opportunity doesn’t mean the path will be easy, it means you get a choice to see where a road goes. It doesn’t mean you won’t be scared. It means you do it anyway.
MOLLY INCLÁn
I quit my job before we even solidified what my salary was going to be. I laugh at this now. It shows exactly how excited I was, but I knew no matter what, I wanted this job. I went down to find an apartment and the one I found with a roommate wouldn’t be ready until one week after my start date. I called a friend from high school who I honestly hadn’t seen in years, who so graciously agreed to let me stay on her couch for a week in exchange I would take her out to eat every night. I packed up my little, red VW bug and I drove to the big city. A girl with a heart full of hopes and dreams and too young to even think about the risk she was taking. I look back at that girl and I think wow I was super courageous. Opportunity knocked and I threw everything away and couldn’t run after it fast enough.
I went home the next weekend to pack a U-Haul. The day I was moving my roommate called and backed out of the lease. I was officially homeless. I panicked and then called my friend I was staying with again and asked if I could continue staying with her. I want you all to know she is the Real MVP of this story. I know at points she probably thought I was never going to leave but she let me stay for 3 WHOLE WEEKS on her couch. She’s a saint and I’ll forever be thankful for her. The first few months in this new city were stressful, I didn’t have a place to live, I didn’t have a solid friend group, nothing was going according to plan but I made it work and that’s what you need to take from this.
There are a lot of points in this story where I could have quit. Where I could have decided the obstacles were too many. Where 3 weeks without a place to stay was a problem. Where planning on a roommate and ending up on my own meant my budget suddenly was a lot tighter. I also was still paying $250 a month to my prior roommate for my apartment lease back in my old city. The odds weren’t stacked in my favor but I was like an alligator in a swamp, latched on for dear life to opportunity. I found solution after solution. There are so many more parts to this story and the months and years that followed but what you need to know is opportunity knocked and I took it. I didn’t quit. I made it work. Opportunity doesn’t mean the path will be easy, it means you get a choice to see where a road goes. It doesn’t mean you won’t be scared. It means you do it anyway.
If you asked me what makes a person successful, I would say resilience and this is just the beginning of the story on resilience. I couldn’t break my old lease, I didn’t have a place to live, I didn’t know anyone in this city, all I had was me and my little, red bug full of clothes. The list of reasons why I shouldn’t were piling up but I only chose to see the opportunity that lay before me. When I look back over my life thus far, I’ll always see the years I spent at that job as irreplaceable. I often think back over the experiences I had there that most people only dream about and I think how lucky I am but also how badly I wanted it and made the most of it. When opportunity knocks, answer the door. It has something important to say.
Chase the opportunities,
Molly