Opportunity in chaos

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame published a new book about "reframes."

Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success

The basic idea is that you have patterns of thinking that can be negative, and that the right reframe can make it positive and more useful to you.

For example, chaos can be seen as negative. We generally want our lives to be orderly.

But Adams uses the reframe, "In chaos there is opportunity."

"If you learn to look for opportunities in chaos or in bad news of any kind, I guarantee you will spot some sooner or later. All you need to do is train yourself to look for the opportunities. I use this reframe a lot. The first thing I think when something falls apart is that an opportunity has been created. I still deal with the problem, of course, but I’ve rewired my brain via repetition to automatically look for the upside. I always find it."

I first went 1099 when there was a "chaos" on my project, and even created a bit myself.

The client was going to put more money on my project and the only other person who could do that job at my company (and with a clearance) quit.

I knew my company was in a squeeze, and I could add more chaos to the situation if I left.

So I said I would leave if they couldn't make the 1099 thing work.

They made it work.

There were a few other items when I took advantage of chaos.

• I had the opportunity to fill a position with an employee, but I couldn't because I didn't have a facility clearance (FCL). I asked the prime to sponsor us and they did.
• My security clearance took too long and I lost the opportunity to get on a project. I used that time to dig up 4 other 1099 offers and ended up working on two simultaneously at a higher rate. This made up for a good chunk of lost income.
• I had another project fall through due to a failed clearance crossover. That taught me how to reduce my risk even more for the next project.

Chaos is stressful. But opportunity is exciting. So if you teach yourself to spot the opportunity, it flips a sucky situation into an exciting endeavor.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.