Every cloud has a silver lining

equipment and leave. Our crime was that we did not book a proper appointment to fish on that particular day.
We were told that our five-year romance with the dam had come to an end and we were warned not to come again if we wanted to avoid any embarrassment in future.
To add insult to injury, we were in the company of two friends from Falcon College in Esigodini. How could we be embarrassed in front of our friends? We failed to comprehend this new development and that it was not reversible.

In our opinion Maringe Dam was our permanent fishing venue. We never thought this marriage would end in such an unceremonious way but that was the sad reality.
One of my friends, Jay, advised us that he knew of another dam in Mhondoro. He persuaded us to try the dam instead of going home.
The dam in Mhondoro did not disappoint. We caught fish like we had never done before. We really had a harvest of fish that day.

All the disappointment of the morning was drowned by the afternoon celebrations. We had our biggest catch that day. 
We had to be chased away from our traditional dam in order to catch our biggest catch ever. This made me rethink about opportunities.
In most cases when we lose what we think is ours, we tend to break down, cry or become very bitter. It is not easy to accept losses, drawbacks or moments of madness which normally kicks us out of our so called comfort zones.

The more that we repeat the same processes or duties, the more that they become routine and the more our minds reinforce them as permanent. If we go to work every day our minds reinforce the idea that our jobs are permanent.

This explains why most pensioners die a few years after retirement because most of them fail to adjust to life without going to work.
In countries where credit is easily available such as South Africa many people commit suicide after losing their jobs because they do know how they will pay their loans without their jobs.

On the other hand, how do you tell your wife and children that you have lost the job that sustains the family?
It is also the case with a sportsperson who sustains a career ending injury in an instance where the sport was the only source of their income or livelihood?
Some lose their dear ‘loyal’ wives or husbands to their best friends or relatives. This is definitely emotionally stressing and heart rending and common in some communities in Zimbabwe.

The fact that the wife or husband is so dear to you cannot stop her or him from moving on. But how many people view this as an opportunity to get a younger and more beautiful/handsome wife or husband. These and other misfortunes come our way whether we are clever/foolish or neither of the two.

Most handle the hills and valleys in their lives in one way or the other. Some valleys we are born with while other occur due to occupational hazards.
How do we view our weaknesses, our disabilities, our sources of personal disadvantages, our discomforts and our recent misfortunes? Do these drain our energies or re-energise us?

So much has been said about leveraging on our strength, positions of advantage to attain our corporate goals but very little has been talked about also leveraging on our positions of disadvantage to attain our desired goals.

Our pain is temporary
My colleague, John Rioga, used to complain about how he was being treated like a second-class citizen in South Africa because of his alien status (mukwerekwere).
In recent years, he has been smiling all the way to the bank after he was engaged by several international contracting companies in South Africa that prefer to work with Zimbabwean structural engineers instead of native South African engineers.

His status as a “mukwerekwere” finally paid dividend. One of my LinkedIn associates, Grace, told me of the numerous opportunities which came her way after 2010.
She told me that she is running more that 20 consultancy projects which are specifically targeted towards empowering women.
The beneficiaries, administrators and consultants for these projects are all women. Previously, she used to bemoan the fact that she felt disadvantaged because she is a woman.

My college mate, Florence, broke one of her high- heeled shoes when she missed her step while on her way for the job interview with one of the popular local non-governmental organisations.
Her fall-back position was unattainable because this happened when she was already late for the interview.
She had no choice but to soldier on and walking like a disabled person all the way to the interview room.
The interviewers found it difficult to select one successful candidate from top 10 performers (including Florence).

On compassionate grounds they all agreed to employ the candidate with physical disabilities Florence. However, the interviewers got the shock of their lives when they discovered (on the first day of work) that Florence had no physical disabilities but had just had a mishap on her way to the interview.

In the book of Esther in the Bible we are told of the dynamic history and life of a Jew slave in Persia. Esther was a slave working as a maid in the King’s quarters.
It was during her captivity that an opportunity to become a queen of Persia arose after the King of Persia Ahasuerus had banished his queen Vashti.
Being a slave presented Esther with two opportunities, the opportunity to marry a very rich king, Ahasuerus (Esther 1v4) and the opportunity to serve the Jews from anti-Semitism perpetuated by Haman (Esther 3v8-14).

The four scenarios above illustrates that there is a time when a disadvantage works in your favour if one waits long enough for the opportunity to come.
Positions of disadvantage are not permanent. Sometimes personal disadvantages or misfortunes can create big opportunities for us.

These stories illustrate that a position of disadvantage can become a source of countless opportunities if the position is viewed with an open mind.
Being aware of your position of disadvantage is a plus, however, one needs to concentrate such that when the opportunity to use the position of your disadvantage arises you will be smart enough to use it to your maximum ability.
Esther had to be in captivity to become the Queen of Persia.

Some of the well-known entrepreneurs only attained their status because they were fired from their workplace.
Even if one is in a prison cell right now, stay focused, your opportunity might emerge from that prison   cell.
We might perceive certain adversities as destructive yet they are means to elevate us. Some opportunities are indeed hidden in adversities just as every cloud has a silver lining.

The writer is a Managing Consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected] .