I woke up yesterday to a pretty cool email waiting in my inbox with the words:

“We would like you to come in and interview Giant Thinkwell and Sir Mix-A-Lot today”

This doesn’t just happen to anybody, and it certainly doesn’t happen to someone that waits for opportunities to fall in their lap.  Successful entrepreneurs MAKE things happen.  And to be brutally honest, I pretty much made this happen (acknowledgment: with help from others to connect the dots).  How?  It all started 3 months ago.

1. I connected with a founder of a recently launched startup about 3 months ago
2. We stayed in contact via email, sometimes not hearing from him for months at a time
3. I started writing on this blog
4. I started shooting out my posts to larger publications around the country
5. BusinessInsider.com like my writing, published a few posts and offered me to become a contributor
6. I finally met up with the founder a few weeks ago and chatted about my latest happenings (quitting job, blogging, looking for connections)
7. He connected me into a local startup communications list last week
8. Giant Thinkwell, a local startup, announced they were releasing the Mix-n-Match app on the list
9. They also requested help and asked if people could spread via social networks
10. I reached out and simply commented “I could do a post on BusinessInsider.com if they wanted”
11. I recieved the email in the morning and that afternoon I was sitting across the table having a conversation with “Mix”

Successful people jump at opportunities and follow through on them.  You cannot wait around for someone to find you and give you exactly what you have been looking for.  You must go make it happen.  Like a running back in football, when you see an opening, you must go for it.  Sometimes that little opening will make all the difference in your life.
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Image courtesy of Flickr user Monicas Dad