Mhaisal Birds III

Some More Birds from Mhaisal

Opportunities Galore

I was once called to deliver a lecture on 'Entrepreneurship'. I had been thinking, on my way, as to how to open the topic, to a largely undergraduate audience, who had no inkling, as to where that 'brilliant' and 'viable' seed of an idea for a successful enterprise could come from. I, was suddenly struck by a scene, elucidation of which would indeed fit the bill, for a good opening.

This scene I had seen a thousand times, but the brilliance of the idea had never occurred to me.

A lone woman with a heap of grass near her, had tied a cow to a nearby tree. Care was taken that the cow could not reach the grass heap on her own. Passers-by would buy grass from the woman and feed the cow.
Wow, what an idea! one, the cow belonged to the woman, with all the benefits, like milk or progeny, the cow delivered, accruing to her, and, she was actually getting paid for allowing people to feed her. Two, she had bought the grass cheap on wholesale, and was selling it dear on retail, obviously making a handsome profit. Isn't this what entrepreneurship is all about?
I, then narrated the wonderful story, written by Somerset Maugham, about a  Church Verger dismissed from work, for being illiterate, finding a new calling in life which takes him to dizzy heights.
There are everywhere, opportunities galore, one just has to keep one's senses wide open, when one would realise that every challenge is indeed a hidden opportunity.