Saturday, January 15, 2011

Being the right person at the right place at the right time

In life, it's often not enough to be at the right place and at the right time. You also have to be the right person, at the right place at the right time. You'll hear people lamenting that if only I'm born earlier, I would have bought this piece of landed property at cheap and after 20 years, I'll become a millionaire because of the property appreciation. But seriously, if you're not the right person, you might not even buy it even though you're at the right place and at the right time.



The same goes for stocks. You'll hear people lamenting that if I've the money, I'd buy the blue 'cheaps' at super low valuation during the bear market and get all the multi baggers that is the envy of all investors. I think even if you have all the right ingredients, if you do not have the right mentality i.e. if you're not the right person, you'll still not act on it.



Taking a brilliant photo is about being the right person at the right place at the right time



The mentality that shapes us is very important. And this mentality changes over time according to our successes and failures and in general, our life experiences. If I'd met my wife 20 yrs earlier, I might not have loved her as I do when I met her 10 yrs ago. I'm a different person 10 yrs earlier and 20 yrs earlier and I'll bet she's a different person at different times too. So, I think that sometimes, the longer path is actually the shortest path. If you have to take the longer path to reach the same destination, take it that it's the universe's way to make you the right person, so that when you reach the right place and the right time, you'll do the right thing.



Now, isn't that a liberating thought to have - that if you have to take a longer path, it's training you to be the right kind of person so that you'll do the right kind of action at the right place and at the right time? Success will follow you wherever you go.

5 comments :

Createwealth8888 said...

For employees to move up in the corporate ladder, you must be at the right place, at the right time and under the RIGHT PERSON. All the three RIGHTS must be aligned. LOL

Kerry said...

Hey LP,
Very true what you've mentioned. Being the right person counts tremendously in many situations. Like the old saying goes, fortune favours the prepared mind.

Anyway, sometimes it's best not to dwell on what could have been/should have been but make the best of what we are given and work with it.

~K

la papillion said...

Hi bro8888,

Haha, that's very true!

Hi Kay,

I think the biggest drawback behind complaining is that the focus is placed on the problem or on others instead of on yourself. You might not be able to change the problem or control others, but I think you can control yourself :)

Take charge of your life!! haha

PanzerGrenadier said...

Hi LP

Steve Job's Stanford commencement speech which talked about "connecting the dots looking backwards" is quite relevant to what you are posting here.

We sometimes only know if a decision is right/wrong in hindsight after we have had the benefit of time and experience to see how things panned out.

But life has to be lived looking forward although we can learn from the past in order to mitigate the risks of making the exact same mistakes in the past :-)

Be well and prosper :-)

la papillion said...

Hi PG,

Oh, I watched that before. It's about him joining some typography class out of interest but later on in his career, he literally transformed the landscape of computing to include the ideas he learnt in that class.

Thanks for dropping by :)