Why You Should Ask For Opportunity

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Nearly every time we meet people along the road and hear they our story, they ask us the same question:

“How on earth do you get a job like that?”

To which we say,

“We just kind of created it. We just asked for the opportunity–and people said yes.”

But first, we had to dream:

It all started with a simple seed.

Last summer, I downloaded free audiobooks every chance I could to make the frequent five-hour drives from New Orleans to Houston a little easier. First, I listened to Donald Miller’s Storyline workbook, which is all about living a good story.

Then I received an email about downloading another book by Miller, Through Paint Deserts, for free, so I listened to it…about 5 times. It’s a must read (or hear) in my eyes as a story about a boy leaving Texas and driving west up to Portland in a VW Van. I can’t do it justice.

Then, I caught a tweet by Allison Vesterfelt that her book Packing Light was free on Audible for one day, so I downloaded that too. In her book, she and a friend travel to all fifty states. (Beginning to sound familiar?)

All of these stories blended in the back of my mind and after a few months, our trip wasn’t just an idea or a dream.

We didn’t ask for permission from anyone, although our parents gave us that oh no, my child is clinically insane face. We simply decided a road trip honeymoon would be our future and we would make it happen.

But we needed money.

Isn’t that always a problem?

It took 20 seconds of insane courage to write the email to Snagajob about helping us find jobs along the road. And instead of saying yes, they agreed to sponsor our trip and help find jobs.

Plus they so believed in our dream, they raised the stakes, sent us documentary equipment, and now suddenly I’m a film maker.

Our dream expanded and shifted to our realty and our reality quickly grew into an amazing opportunity.

But none of this magic, none of this adventure, would happen if we sat around waiting to be noticed by a willing sponsor. Amazing things don’t happen to the people who sit behind closed doors waiting for excitement.

Great things happen when you seek opportunities to help others.

That’s why in two weeks Heath and I will double back to Portland for the World Domination Summit. It’s a conference for the world shakers—people who don’t accept normal and search for ways to better our community.

We both knew we wanted to meet the people there. They seem just as crazy and spirited as us. But the conference has been sold out for months—until we asked if we could volunteer and help with the event. We didn’t ask if there were more tickets available and we didn’t ask if we could just shake hands with the really famous people.

We asked if there was any way we could help. Turns out they need another film crew and if we want the gig, we have an all access pass to the entire conference.

After you accept one big opportunity, once you accept the possible risks and rewards, more doors seem to open to you.

After we seized the opportunity to film a documentary, we found that there really isn’t anything out of reach. You don’t need to be special or anything, because trust me, half the time I’m more focused on not dropping the camera than actually filming.

But when you ask for the opportunity, especially when that opportunity serves a greater need, people start to believe in you. And before you know it, you’re living far outside your comfort zone accomplishing dreams you never knew you had, just because you asked.