"Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket not the thimble"

Another gem of wisdom from Warren Buffett.

Now. even though I do think that there are plenty of opportunities to be found in the world,

and if you miss an opportunity today, another will come around sooner than you think, the really big opportunities don't come around as often.

As such, you need to have your eyes and ears open and be ready to act as soon as they come about.

One of my first opportunities came in 1990, when I managed to obtain the distribution rights for a range of products out of the USA. In 1996, another opportunity came when I became the ANZ distributor for another range of product out of the USA.

With that second opportunity, I saw huge potential, and as such, I "put out the bucket" by spending money on organising customer seminars, demonstarations, luncheons etc all over Australia and New Zealand in order to get the new product range into the market and become market leader. In doing so, and spending quite a lot of money promoting the equipment and educating customers, we eventually became market leader after about

3-4 years, and have remained so ever since.

What I believe Warren Buffet was saying was to take advantage of big opportunities and back yourself. Of course, you need to be ready for such opportunities, and be willing to take action when they arise.

Another opportunity that comes to mind is in my investing realm.

I live in Sydney, Australia. Now, Sydney has changed a lot since I was a kid. What were once old factories and warehouses are now boutique apartments. The factories are now gone. Of course, people in Australia love residential property investing (mostly negatively geared - but that's a whole other story), and so the masses "invest" in negatively gered property - they all think along the same lines. So many failed to see the real opportunity staring them in the face! You see, whenindustrial property is demolished to make way for lowe cost residential apartments, the underlying issue is that there is nowhere for small businesses to work from! Plumbers, builders, electricians, wholesalers, small manufacturers that buy and live in these residential apartments, have nowhere to work from.

There is a whole corridor in southwest Sydney that displayed this trend. I saw it. I believed it was going to "rain gold". So I backed myself and started buying small factory units to lease out to small businesses along this corridor. Over the last 12-13 years I have seen the industrial property prices double and triple in value.

The rents have increased in line with the value of the properties, and I have created a passive income stream for life, even for my kids lives!

What I did was nothing extraordinary, quite mundane actually. However, the results of my "mundane" investing were definitely extraordinary!

All I did was see a trend and a subsequent opportunity. I backed myself, and put out as big a bucket as I could, so I could aquire as many properties as I could comfortably afford.

Focus on your strengths. Back yourself.

Be ready for opportunities, and when the big opportunities come and it starts to rain gold, put out that big bucket!