I have wild raspberry bushes growing in my yard. When I first spotted them, the plants had started to bloom. Anticipating berries in due season, I started to keep an eye on them and the first berries appeared. They were raw and astringent so time had to pass before they turned edible. My attention turned to other things at home and work and last week when I went back looking for berries there were none left. There were other contenders for them and they had kept their eye on the prize while I got distracted. That is what happened with some wild chantarelle mushrooms I noticed one morning and promised I would get them before lunch - the squirrels had preceded me and there was not much left by afternoon.
There are so many lessons from such missed opportunities in my backyard. I want something in a passive, reactive kind of way, others want it like their life depends on it and they put forth the effort to match. The outcomes are predictable. I may have had the first mover advantage, seen the opportunity first but got distracted by other things in my field of vision. Others came in second or later but they chose to hone in on what was in front of them to the exclusion of everything else. So being late did not hurt them in the end but being first did not give me any advantage. A woman I meet sometimes during my walks by the lake close to the house told me how she had seen a bald eagle swoop down on an egret and snatch a fish out of its mouth and fly away.
That too is a lesson learned about giving up advantage due to lack of situational awareness. A competitor wins the deal when you were that close to signing the contract because you did not notice signs of their presence.
Comments