Encouragement

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When Opportunity Knocks
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson


As the graduation period looms ever close, many seniors will begin the adventures we call life. Several years ago as a graduation speaker, I told a class of high school seniors that if anything in life is repeated many time in one’s life it is the opportunity to achieve one’s dream. Some people believe opportunity comes once. And if one does not grab for that opportunity then all is lost. I suggested that opportunity knocks many time in life. It is knowing when to open the door and walk through. This is not always as easy as often portrayed. Knowing when requires prayer, a dream and fortitude.

What generally keeps people from reaching their goals? Several things but fear is one of the leading reasons. Impatience is another one.

Throughout history story after story has been told wherein men and women had a dream and fearlessly pursued it. One such person, was just 6 years old when he began his successful venture. That person is Harland Sanders—better known to most as the Colonel of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Harland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in Henryville, Indiana. His father died when he was just 6 years old. Since his mother worked, he was forced to learn how to cook for his family. As a teen, young Harland worked at many jobs. He was a fireman, steamboat driver, and an insurance salesman. Young Harland, looking for adventure, enlisted in the Army and was sent to Cuba on military duty and continued to cook.

After completing his military service, he went to work in a restaurant. At age 40, Sanders made chicken for people who passed by the service station where he worked in Corbin, Kentucky. He did not have a restaurant but served fried chicken in a diner—service station that was also used as his home. His fried chicken and popularity grew so that Sanders moved to a motel with an adjoining restaurant to sell his chicken and fixings. For more than nine years, Harland Sanders worked on methods and mixtures for cooking his fried chicken. His style of cooking fried chicken took off. However, his success did not proceed without some bends in the road.

In time, Harland Sanders was forced to sell his property due to a need for the federal government to make way for an Interstate highway—highway 75. Rather than complain about his losses, he continued on even though he had to live off Social Security payments for a while. Confident in his ability to cook fried chicken, he took his Social Security checks and invested what he had in preparing the best chicken possible. He began franchising his style of chicken by traveling across the United States by car and cooking the chicken in restaurants. If the food was acceptable to the owner and his clientele then Sanders entered into an agreement with the restaurant that he would earn 5 cents for every piece of chicken sold. Sanders’ dream, patience and devotion turned his small business into one of the largest restaurant businesses in the United States earning him substantial fame and fortune before he died at the age of 90 in 1980.

Generally speaking, God gives us the tools we need in order to succeed in life. The problem is that our perspective hampers our ability to use what God has given us. Ask the Lord to give you new eyes to evaluate the seas before you board your ship of dreams to sail off to seek the continent of your life’s work. Your gold mine could be right in front of your nose. May God bless your adventure!

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