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In This Episode:\n\n\n\n* How business coach Justine Clay decides whether or not to pursue an opportunity* Why she starts with feelings first and how she builds a \u201cscaffolding\u201d around those feelings with practical execution* What she did in the midst of the Great Recession to create a new opportunity by generously serving out-of-work creatives* How Justine views working on herself as an opportunity for growth\n\n\n\n\n\nOpportunities always come at a crossroads.\n\n\n\nSometimes they\u2019re intersections with big flashing lights and signs pointing to what\u2019s ahead in either direction.\n\n\n\nOther times, it\u2019s impossible to know where each path goes. Maybe it\u2019s even hard to see that there is a choice of direction in the first place.\n\n\n\nBut when we can really take notice of all the places we choose to go one direction or another, we can see that there are opportunities all around us\u2014even when they\u2019re not the opportunities we were looking for.\n\n\n\nThis month, we\u2019ve been exploring how we spot opportunities and what we do with them once they\u2019re in view.\n\n\n\nOpportunities are, in effect, choices.\n\n\n\nAnd while we don\u2019t all have equal access to the same quantity or quality of choices, I think it\u2019s valuable to notice when you do have a choice and how often you make a choice without even realizing it.\n\n\n\nWith every new opportunity\u2014every choice\u2014there\u2019s a trade-off.\n\n\n\nYou might have the opportunity to hire someone to help you\u2014but that means you\u2019re trading off some amount of control.\n\n\n\nYou might have the opportunity to try out a new marketing channel\u2014but that means you\u2019re trading off time and effort you\u2019ve been putting into another marketing channel.\n\n\n\nYou might have the opportunity to develop a new offer\u2014but that means you\u2019re trading off the focus you\u2019ve put on what you\u2019re currently offering.\n\n\n\nTrading between one option and another\xa0isn\u2019t\xa0a bad thing, of course.\n\n\n\nIt just is.\n\n\n\nNo matter what we choose or what opportunity to pursue, there\u2019s something else we\u2019re not choosing or pursuing. That\u2019s opportunity cost.\n\n\n\nIf I hire someone for my business and trade off some control, I\u2019m potentially missing out on keeping things simpler and more streamlined.\n\n\n\nIf I pursue a new marketing channel, I\u2019m missing out on the potential growth that continuing to focus on my existing marketing channel could create.\n\n\n\nIf I develop a new offer, I\u2019m missing out on the potential revenue that doubling-down on my current offer could generate.\n\n\n\nAgain, this isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing.\n\n\n\nOpportunity cost exists with every choice, on both sides of the crossroads.\n\n\n\nExcept that we rarely notice it.\n\n\n\nWhen we make a choice or pursue an opportunity without realizing the trade-off, or when we fail to see we\u2019re making a choice at all\u2026\n\n\n\n\u2026we rob ourselves of the chance to truly evaluate the direction we want to take next.\n\n\n\nWe\u2019re so eager to consider the benefit of choosing one direction or the other that we rarely stop to weigh what we\u2019re giving up no matter what we choose.\n\n\n\nThis week, my guest is Justine Clay,