Wherever You Are, Be Sure You Are There

A few years ago, I sat on a board with a young manager. It was her first big strategy meeting.

She had waited months for a seat at that table.

While at the meeting, her phone kept buzzing.

I knew her mind was drifting. I was copied on the emails she kept responding to, dousing the fire burning on a project her team was working on, and setting the stage for the team meeting after.

Halfway through, the President asked the room a direct question about her department.

Silence.

He looked at her.

She had no answer, not because she didn’t know the answer, but because she wasn’t actually in the room.

Her body was there. She wasn’t.

Someone else answered.

That answer became a stand-alone project.

That project became a promotion and the birth of a new subsidiary.

She didn’t lose the opportunity because she lacked talent, ideas, or ambition.

She lost it because she was only partly present for it.

That taught me a big lesson in behavior:

Attention is the first step toward effective action.

We cannot respond appropriately to opportunities, people, or changing circumstances if we do not pay attention to them in the first instance.

Opportunities Rarely Announce Themselves

They don’t wait politely while you finish scrolling, multitasking, or mentally rehearsing your next move.

They show up disguised as ordinary moments, a question in a meeting, a conversation in the hallway, a quiet moment with a struggling teammate, family, or friend.

If you’re not fully there, you don’t just miss the moment. You miss the door as it quietly opens.

When we are constantly rushing toward the next thing, we may overlook what the present moment is trying to teach or offer us.

Presence is more than slowing down.

It is a skill.

It means listening without preparing your response.

It means giving people your full attention.

It means recognizing the opportunity inside an ordinary moment and having the courage to seize it.

Your next breakthrough may not be waiting somewhere in the future.

It may already be in the room with you.

Wherever you are, be there.

BISOLA MOGAJI