WHERE A MAN START IS NOT WHERE HE MUST FINISH

THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY

CHAPTER SIX

THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY



Joshua quickly discovered that getting an opportunity was easier than keeping one.

His first week working for Mr. Richard was nothing like he had imagined.

There was no special treatment.

Nobody cared that he had been given a chance by the owner.

Nobody expected him to become successful simply because Mr. Richard had noticed him.

Joshua was given ordinary tasks.

He arranged files, checked inventory, delivered documents to different offices, cleaned the storage area, and helped wherever he was needed.

Some days, he wondered if he had made any progress at all.

But he remembered Mr. Richard's words.

Never be ashamed of starting at the bottom.

So Joshua accepted the work.

He arrived early.

He listened carefully.

He watched how the older employees handled customers.

He paid attention whenever Mr. Richard discussed business.

And whenever he finished his assigned tasks, he looked for something else to learn.

One afternoon, Joshua was helping to arrange a shipment of automobile parts when he noticed something.

Several boxes had been delivered with the wrong labels.

He checked the paperwork again.

There was a mistake.

Joshua informed the supervisor.

The man checked the documents and discovered that Joshua was right.

It was a small mistake, but correcting it saved the company from sending the wrong products to an important customer.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Richard heard about it.

He called Joshua into his office.

"You noticed the problem?"

Joshua nodded.

"I checked the numbers against the delivery note."

Mr. Richard leaned back in his chair.

"Good."

Joshua waited.

"Do you know what you did differently from most people?"

Joshua shook his head.

"You paid attention."

That sounded simple.

But Joshua understood that Mr. Richard was teaching him something.

Success was not always about doing extraordinary things.

Sometimes it was about doing ordinary things better than everyone expected.

At home, Joshua's life was changing too.

The money he earned was not enough to make them rich, but it made certain things easier.

His mother could buy food without worrying about whether they would have enough for the next day.

Mercy returned to school.

Joshua was finally able to make progress toward paying his own school fees.

But the improvement came with another problem.

Joshua was becoming exhausted.

He was trying to balance everything.

School.

Work.

Studying.

Helping his mother.

Helping his sister.

Sleeping.

And doing it all with very little rest.

His grades began to suffer.

One afternoon, his mathematics teacher stopped him after class.

"You haven't been yourself lately."

Joshua looked at him.

"I'm just tired."

"Your recent work is not as good as before."

Joshua remained silent.

The teacher asked whether he was working after school.

Joshua explained.

The teacher sighed.

"I understand why you're doing it. But don't sacrifice your education completely."

Joshua promised to be more careful.

He knew the teacher was right.

The problem was that Joshua didn't know how to slow down.

He had spent so long fighting for every opportunity that he was afraid to let any of them go.

One evening, Mr. Richard found Joshua still working long after his assigned hours.

"You should have gone home."

"I wanted to finish this."

Mr. Richard looked at the files on the table.

"Who asked you to do this?"

"Nobody."

"Then why are you doing it?"

Joshua thought for a moment.

"I don't want you to think I don't appreciate the opportunity."

Mr. Richard sat down.

"Joshua, listen to me carefully."

Joshua looked at him.

"Hard work is good. But working blindly is not the same as working wisely."

Joshua remained quiet.

"You are trying to prove that you deserve this opportunity. I understand that. But you don't have to destroy yourself to prove your worth."

Joshua lowered his eyes.

He had never thought about it that way.

Mr. Richard continued.

"Learn to manage your time. Learn to rest. Learn to think. If you only work with your hands, someone else will always have to tell you what to do."

Those words stayed with Joshua.

He realized that Mr. Richard was not simply giving him a job.

He was teaching him how to think.

A few weeks later, something happened that changed the way Joshua saw himself.

Mr. Richard asked him to accompany him to a meeting with one of his suppliers.

Joshua was surprised.

He had expected to stay in the office.

Instead, Mr. Richard told him to take notes and observe.

The meeting lasted nearly two hours.

Joshua listened as the businessmen discussed prices, delivery schedules, quality, transportation costs, and profit margins.

He understood only some of it.

But he watched carefully.

After the meeting, Mr. Richard asked what he had learned.

Joshua hesitated.

Then he explained that he had noticed the supplier was willing to reduce the price because Mr. Richard was buying in larger quantities.

Mr. Richard smiled.

"Anything else?"

Joshua thought.

"He was also more interested in keeping your business than making a large profit from this particular order."

Mr. Richard stopped walking.

He looked at Joshua.

"How did you notice that?"

"He kept talking about future orders."

Mr. Richard smiled.

"You're paying attention."

Joshua felt something inside him.

It was a small feeling, but powerful.

For years, he had seen himself as the poor boy who needed help.

Now someone was treating him like a person who could learn.

That changed something.

He began to believe that perhaps he had abilities he had never discovered.

But not everyone at the company was happy about Joshua's growing relationship with Mr. Richard.

One employee named Kelvin had been working there for several years.

He was older than Joshua and had expected to receive the opportunities Joshua was receiving.

At first, Kelvin ignored him.

Then he began making comments.

One afternoon, while several employees were working, Kelvin laughed.

"Some people get lucky."

Joshua looked up.

Kelvin continued.

"One person knows the right man and suddenly he is attending meetings."

Joshua understood the message.

He chose not to respond.

Kelvin smiled.

"Don't worry. You'll learn how things work."

Joshua returned to his work.

But the comment stayed in his mind.

That evening, he told himself not to worry about people who were unhappy with his progress.

He had spent too many years fighting his circumstances to start fighting people as well.

Still, he couldn't ignore the feeling that Kelvin was watching him.

As the months passed, Joshua became more confident.

He learned how to keep records.

He learned how to communicate with customers.

He learned the basics of buying and selling.

He learned that profit was not simply the amount of money a person received.

He learned about expenses, planning, negotiation, and trust.

Most importantly, he learned that a successful business was built on solving problems.

Every day, he wrote something new in an old notebook.

He called it his Business Book.

Whenever Mr. Richard said something important, Joshua wrote it down.

Whenever he made a mistake, he wrote down what he had learned.

Whenever he saw something that could be improved, he recorded it.

The notebook became one of his most valuable possessions.

One evening, he sat outside his house reading through it.

His mother came and sat beside him.

"You are always writing these days."

Joshua smiled.

"I'm learning."

She looked at the notebook.

"About business?"

"Yes."

She smiled.

"Do you still want to become a businessman?"

Joshua looked at her.

"More than ever."

His mother nodded.

"I knew you would."

Joshua closed the notebook.

"Mama, one day I want you to stop working."

She laughed.

"Who will feed us?"

"I will."

She smiled.

"Then make sure you become very successful."

Joshua laughed.

"I will."

But his mother became serious.

"Just remember something."

"What?"

"Don't let success make you forget where you came from."

Joshua nodded.

"I won't."

He didn't know how important those words would become.

The following Monday, Joshua received an unexpected assignment.

Mr. Richard handed him a folder.

"I want you to study this."

Joshua opened it.

Inside were documents about a small business project.

Mr. Richard explained that he was considering expanding into another area.

He wanted Joshua to examine the numbers and prepare a simple report.

Joshua stared at the documents.

"Me?"

"Yes."

"You want me to do it?"

"I want to see how you think."

Joshua's heart began beating faster.

This was different from arranging files.

Different from delivering documents.

Different from cleaning storage rooms.

For the first time, someone was asking him to think like a businessman.

Joshua took the folder.

"I'll do my best."

Mr. Richard smiled.

"I don't want your best."

Joshua looked at him.

"I want you to learn."

Joshua nodded.

He carried the folder back to his desk.

He knew the assignment might be difficult.

He knew he could make mistakes.

But he also knew something else.

The boy who once stood outside the school office with empty pockets was slowly becoming someone different.

Not rich.

Not successful.

Not yet.

But he was learning.

And sometimes, before a person's circumstances change, their thinking must change first.

Joshua opened the folder.

Then he began to work.

He had no idea that the assignment would become the beginning of his first real test.

And he certainly did not know that someone inside the company was already waiting for him to fail.