How to Wisely Cooperate with Recognized Opportunity

Focus on this: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you." (Prov, 4:7-9).

Let's consider why some teams win consistently! Let's also consider why some teams lose consistently! First, let's define team. As an acronym it means the following: Together Everyone Achieves More. The American Heritage Dictionary offers the following definitions for team:

1. A group organized to work together
2. To harness or join together
3. A vehicle along with animal(s) hitched to it

Four attendant concepts provide relevant insights to help us understand the essence of team. Five of those concepts are: team player, teamwork, team dynamics, team builder and team leader. Let's define those concepts as I am using them in this article. A team player refes to a member of a group organized to work together. Teamwork means the thoughts, beliefs and actions undertaken for the overall benefit of the group. Team dynamics refer to the interplay of cooperative powers among this group. Team builder describes a member of a group who consistently improves performance, both his or her own, and others. Team leader means a person who commits to serving every member of the group he or she has joined.

Two other concepts--cooperation and competition--form the cornerstone of the foundation that determines team success or failure. Here's the bottom line. Teams that win consistently maximize the thinking, the beliefs and the actions necessary for optimal cooperation. Teams that consistently lose maximize the thinking, the beliefs and the actions of competition. The definition below, from Wikipedia, provides insight into both cooperation and competition. Pay attention to the highlighted words because they describe the essence of the two definitions!

Cooperation, co-operation, or coöperation^[1] is the process of working or acting together, which can be accomplished by both intentional and non-intentional agents. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a nation. It is the alternative to working separately in competition. Cooperation can also be accomplished by computers, which can handle shared resources simultaneously, while sharing processor time.

In these definitions, we find all the principles we need to understand how to wisely cooperate with any recognized opportunity! Remember, to recognize something means to see it again. Here is how I explained recognized opportunity in the third article of this six-part series.

"Recognized here means: "To know a thing to be something that has been perceived before." It is critically important to understand that you simply cannot recognize what you've never seen before. Therefore, if all of your life you have seen: "Opportunity is no where," you simply will not be able to recognize "opportunity is now here, until someone reveals it.

Consider how Napoleon Hill discussed this principle in his famous book--Think and Grow Rich: "One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word 'impossible.' He knows all the rules which will NOT work. He knows all the things that CANNOT be done. This book was written for those who seek the rules which have made others successful and are willing to stake everything--[your T.E.A.M. of resources] on those rules. A great many years ago I purchased a fine dictionary, The first thing I did with it was to turn to the world 'impossible.' and neatly clip it out of the book. That would not be an unwise thing for you to do. Success comes to those who become SUCCESS CONSCIOUS. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become FAILURE CONSCIOUS,"(Emphasis, Napoleon Hill).

Now let's break the system "opportunity" into its component parts. OP means 'observation post.' Port means a logical connection place. Unity means the state or quality of being one. Therefore, in its essence, opportunity means to always watch for logical connection points to become one with others who share your over arching vision(s). You see, in life, you can join and work in unity with more than one team. In the same way, you can wisely cooperate with more than one recognized opportunity. In fact, if you really desire to add value to others, you MUST work "as one" with multiple opportunities, with the number depending on your understanding of your capacity to cooperate with and contribute to the teams.

For the sake of this discussion, let's conclude that you are committed to a recognized opportunity. Now, how do you cooperate with this venture? The following four cognitive, belief and action principles answer that question:

1. Play and work with the group as one (team player functioning in unity)
2. Always use your power allocation (dynamics) to serve the group
3. Always enhance the group's effectiveness (team builder)
4. Invest your resources generously to move the group closer to the team's shared vision.

At this point, it's worth revisiting the concept of shared resources. Each of us possess a "TEAM" of resources. Here the acronym means time, energy, attention and money. When you unite with a group, you must, therefore, budget a specific amount of your team of resources to group development, enhancement, enlightenment and progress. As they say, that's DEEP!

Again we come to the bottom line. John C. Maxwell, in his book The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, summarized this bottom line in his first law of teamwork. He wrote: "As much as we admire solo achievement, the truth is that no lone individual has done anything of value. The belief that one peson can do something great is a myth. There are no real Rambos who can take on a hostile army by themselves. Even the Lone Ranger wasn't really a loner. Everywhere he went, he rode with Tonto. Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts . . .Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built on the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received."

There you have it! How to wisely cooperate with recognized opportunity. Stay on your observation post, watching for people working as one, doing things of value. If you share their vision, join them at the most logical connection point. Work with them as one, generously investing your time, energy, attention and money in one or more exciting, value producing ventures.