Carpe Diem

Do you ever notice how opportunity seems knock at opportune times? Just when you need it most or when you have given up your seemingly hopeless search?
If you don't notice this, or it doesn't happen to you, you probably aren't working to your full potential.
Today I take the time and initiative to be thankful and aware of the greatness derived from opportunity. Complacency is the direct foe of opportunistic chance. If you hope to land that great job, or strike life altering success, you won't do it sitting on the couch waiting for someone to smack you in the back of the head.
Putting yourself out there is challenging, down right nerve racking for some. In the service industry specifically, you must know and be known. You must have a following, you must make yourself available to your fellow bartenders. For most of us, this comes as second nature. We have the gift of gab and find ourselves to be boiling pools of useless information with an abundance of irrelevant contacts. Until that one day when the stars align and a drunken, shit eating grin smiles down upon us, and we find ourself standing on a cliff with a hang gliding instructor and a pharmacist with a pocket full of courage inducing pills. And you must decide to use your tightly wove web of contacts to jump into something better, more challenging and more fulfilling.
You must be ready to take these fleeting moments as they come. Decide when to jump, be ready to fall and expect to fly.
Building a successful resume that exhibits your growth and willingness to challenge yourself is a great goal for any rapidly changing industry. For those of us who constantly strive for more, I recommend the following:
1. Learn more. Read something of interest and relevance.
2. Be cool. Share your knowledge. Hoarding information never served a noble purpose and secret recipes don't make friends.
3. Network. Meet people, get to know your guests, co-workers and other bartenders.
4. Market yourself. Send your patrons to bartenders you know. Show interest in the lives of others. Have business cards. Use social media. Participate in as many activities as you can.
5. Branch out. Eggs all in one basket? Never a good idea. Diversify your employment and experience assets.
6. Jump! Maybe not every time, but certainly not never.
Opportunity fuels hope and from hope and realization comes happiness. And that is the goal isn't it?
Seize your career and embrace it. For whatever you choose to do, do it well and with the intention to succeed.


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