“Covid testing hotline, how may I assist you?”

This is the answer I heard over and over from the fellow next to me as we waited for our flight to take off.

In follow up conversation I learned that he was running a testing center – actually multiple centers throughout the country. Normally his wife would take over calls when in flight but she was flying at the same time – from a different city to the same location as him, but the answering machine would pick up during the flight, providing information on testing locations and hours.

Did callers have any idea they were talking to the owner? (I don’t know this for sure but I perceived him to be the owner). Did they have any clue he was sitting on a plane? (Very possibly when the overhead announcements came on).

It’s easy to perceive operations as being larger and more sophisticated than they actually are. This skews our perception to thinking that ‘others’ have things figured out more than us, or perhaps that ‘I could never achieve that’.

He saw an opportunity and he took it, despite also running a business in a completely different industry that continued to do well in the pandemic.

We all have the option to take opportunities out there. They probably won’t present themselves on a platter, but if we work hard and are willing to do the work and take risks, amazing things really can happen. Don’t let fear of not having enough (talent, resources, time) stop you from doing what you are passionate about.