QUESTION – In the book Do Great Things, you share a surprising perspective – that it is possible for the average person to see opportunity others do not see much in the same way that great entrepreneurs have seen opportunity. Can you elaborate more on that idea?
ANSWER – I have always been fascinated with how the great entrepreneurs have been able to see opportunities that no-one else was able to see, and they have taken advantage of those opportunities by creating a product or service to meet needs that were not being met previously. Henry Ford, for example, recognized that most of the auto manufacturers were only focused on one segment of the population – the very rich. When Mr. Ford formed Ford Motor Company there were about 250 auto manufactures. By 1928, 1 out of every 2 cars in the world was a Ford. Ray Kroc is another example. He recognized the changing trends of the population back in the 1950s with the baby boom generation and expansion of the interstate system, and he purchased McDonalds from the McDonald brothers for very little in comparison to what it became worth in a very short period of time as fast food restaurants exploded onto the scene. Howard Shultz did the same with Starbucks in the 1980s.
Now imagine the amazing potential if you could start to see opportunity in your personal life that others were not seeing. You could begin to recognize amazing talents in your children or opportunities in your marriage or in your job or ministry. In the book, Do Great Things, I reveal the process the great entrepreneurs use to see opportunity by demonstrating how to ask the right questions. The thinking process is built on questions, but most people are not asking the right questions. Once you are asking the right questions, then you must begin noticing the trends and then seeing the big picture.
I then take the entrepreneurial framework of seeing opportunity and wrap it in a powerful biblical approach. I demonstrate with amazing examples like Moses, Joseph and Paul. The ability to see opportunity others do not see can be a life changing approach.
