manPerhaps Jeff Bezos would have had more responses to his job posting way back in 1994 had he used that as the posting title. The point of bringing up a job posting from 10 years ago is not without motive; I’ve always wondered if I am making the most out of every opportunity (as I’m sure everyone does) and try and make sure I don’t let great opportunities pass me by.

Would You Have Responded to the Call?

By all means the job posting in the link above might be something easy to overlook. It’s very brief, doesn’t say a whole lot about the company, and the resumes are going back to the lister: a sure sign that it’s a one or two man show. Do you know what became of the work described in this posting? It’s now Amazon, a $33,000,000,000 (that’s billion) company. If you had responded to this job posting and got the gig, there’s no doubt you would be a multi-millionaire today.

Opportunity is There: Reach Out and Grab It

A closer look at the job posting does reveal some signals:

“help pioneer commerce on the Internet.”

“you should be able to do so in about one-third the time
that most competent people think possible”

and the most impressive in my opinion, the signature at the end:

“It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.” — Alan Kay

Stop and Smell the Roses

I’m posting this for no other reason than showing that there’s opportunity out there for all of us, often times right under our noses. Don’t dismiss everything that comes your way as within the ordinary; taking a closer look might reveal the extraordinary. :)

In other not entirely related news, we recently acquired the site BloggingMix.com. It will make a great addition to the WhyDoWork brand and we’re really excited about the acquisition. Stay tuned for more exciting details.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!