It may sound obvious, but you can’t take advantage of opportunities to build your business until you first see those opportunities. I call this skill “Opportunity Vision,” and while it can be harder to learn that you might think, it is indeed learnable—not to mention essential.

Get into the habit of constantly asking yourself this question: “What is the opportunity here?” Because truly, opportunities exist almost everywhere.

Standing in line at Starbucks, for example, with people all around you—what is the opportunity? The opportunity is to strike up a conversation with someone.

Of course, there are no guarantees the person standing behind you is remotely in need of your services, but what if he or she is? You may wind up getting nothing from the encounter at all—but if there’s no encounter to begin with, you’ll definitely get nothing from it.

My favorite example of Opportunity Vision is the simple act of business card distribution. The beautiful thing about a business card is its simplicity—you only need a moment’s conversation with someone to hand them a card, and then you’ll know that should you be of service, they have everything they need to contact you. But business cards are only one example. Get into the habit of looking for these opportunities, and you’ll find them everywhere. And although the idea of constant awareness may sound silly, finding opportunities is the first step toward success.