During the mid 1980’s, more than half of Brazil’s coffee crops failed due to draughts, creating a major coffee boom in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. At the time, many people got rich, from the farmers to the traders, truck drivers, shipping lines, suppliers of infrastructure, food vendors, etc. etc. Usually, when such a windfall occurs, we generally expect it to be harnessed by the big players only. That could not be further from the truth. I recall my father, who was present at the coffee trading posts, telling me about a young, ten-year old boy on his way to school, who watched the frenzy of endless scores of farmers lining up to sell their produce to multiples buyers, whose weigh scales hung off trees and makeshift supports. This young man decided he too deserved a piece of the action. Unafraid of being punished for missing school, he placed bowls and cardboards below the weigh scales and scraped up all the coffee beans that were spilled during the weighing and transfer process. In one day, he cobbled together between twenty-five to fifty kilos of spilled coffee beans, which he then sold to the traders. He earned his family more money than they had ever seen. Likewise, many members of the local impoverished community went to the forest and built canoes and carts, which they used to transport coffee across the rivers and jungle terrains. They too became wealthy. Everyone flourished, from the smallest individual to the major players.
The point is that when the cyclone of opportunity comes your way, you should harness it as best as you can, constantly believing that you have as much right to its abundance as others, no matter how insignificant you may consider yourself to be. I often hear people say, “The only way for me to be rich is to win the lottery…” Well, they could wait a lifetime for something that may never come.
Small and large cyclones of opportunity do come our way often, but we do not see them because we are either oblivious, or do not believe we are capable or strong enough to jump onto them. Remember, if that ten year old could help his family buy a farm, we too, can achieve significant growth, if we are willing to set aside our fears, have faith in ourselves, and go the extra mile. My dear friends, the bounties of abundance are closer to our reach than we realize…don’t wait to win the lottery. You are the lottery!!
©Amyn Dahya
