What’s in Your Opportunity Portfolio?
A Reflection on Growth, Stewardship & Recognizing Opportunity
When you hear the word opportunity, what comes to mind?
A promotion?
A new job?
A business contract?
An invitation?
A speaking engagement?
More money?
Those are certainly opportunities.
But lately, I’ve been thinking about opportunity differently.
I’ve been thinking about it as a portfolio.
Just as we might diversify a financial portfolio rather than placing everything into one investment, perhaps we should take a broader look at the opportunities we’re cultivating in our lives.
Because sometimes we become so focused on the opportunity we’re waiting for that we overlook the opportunities already around us.
So let me ask you: What’s in your opportunity portfolio?
Opportunity Doesn’t Always Look Like Advancement
Opportunity doesn’t always look like advancement. Many of us were taught a fairly traditional picture of success: Work hard. Perform well. Get promoted. Make more money. Move up. Repeat.
There’s nothing wrong with career advancement.
But experience has taught me that some of the most significant opportunities in my life haven’t necessarily come with a new title.
Some came through serving.
Some through mentoring.
Some through volunteering.
Some through education.
Some through relationships.
Some through community involvement.
Some through conversations I didn’t know would matter when they happened.
And some came through opportunities to use skills I already possessed in completely different environments.
Yes, some opportunities have even arrived disguised as problems I initially didn’t want.
That’s why we have to be careful about defining opportunity too narrowly.
If the only opportunity we’re willing to recognize is the one that looks exactly like the outcome we imagined, we may miss quite a bit.
Diversify Your Opportunity Portfolio. Think about an investment portfolio.
The objective isn’t simply to collect random investments. There should be purpose, balance and strategy.
Our opportunity portfolios can work similarly.
Your portfolio might include career opportunities that develop expertise, learning opportunities that build knowledge, relationships that expand perspective, service that allows you to contribute, leadership opportunities that develop influence, creative opportunities that turn ideas into something tangible, and spiritual opportunities that stretch your faith and discernment.
Even failure can become part of the portfolio when it gives us information we couldn’t have learned from success alone.
Not everything produces the same return.
And not every return is financial.
Some returns look like: Knowledge. Relationships. Experience. Exposure. Confidence. Perspective. Credibility. Wisdom. Purpose.
Those count too.
Every Opportunity Isn’t Your Opportunity
Now, here's where wisdom enters the conversation.
Because everything presenting itself as an opportunity does not belong in your portfolio.
Baby, I’ve learned this one.
Something can be a perfectly good opportunity and still not be my assignment.
It may require time I don’t have.
Resources I shouldn’t spend.
Energy needed somewhere else.
Or it may distract me from something I’ve already been called to finish.
Sometimes what looks like an opportunity is simply a very attractive squirrel wearing a business suit.
Before adding something to my portfolio, I’ve learned to ask:
Does this align with where I’m going?
What will this require from me?
What will I potentially neglect by saying yes?
Am I saying yes because it aligns—or because I’m afraid another opportunity won’t come?
Is this for now, later, or not at all?
Because opportunity without discernment can become distraction.
Some Opportunities Need Time to Mature
We don’t evaluate every investment solely by what it produced today.
Some require time.
Opportunities can work the same way.
Something you learned years ago may suddenly become relevant.
A relationship developed long ago may reconnect at exactly the right moment.
A skill you once wondered whether you’d ever use may eventually become the thing that differentiates you.
An idea you wrote down but didn’t have the capacity to pursue may finally reach its season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Every opportunity doesn’t belong in the same season.
Wisdom includes knowing what to pursue, what to nurture, what to release—and what simply needs more time.
Audit Your Opportunity Portfolio
Every good portfolio needs periodic review.
So perhaps it’s time for an opportunity audit.
And y’all knew I was eventually going to bring auditing into this.
Take inventory of where you're currently investing your:
Time. Energy. Money. Knowledge. Relationships. Attention. Faith.
Then ask:
What is growing?
What is developing me?
What am I maintaining simply because I’ve always done it?
What no longer aligns?
Where am I overinvested?
Where am I underinvested?
And what opportunity have I overlooked because it didn’t resemble what I thought opportunity was supposed to look like?
Sometimes the answer isn’t adding another opportunity.
Sometimes it’s recognizing the value of what’s already in the portfolio.