Attitude is everything – Finding opportunities when things don’t go as planned.

On Wednesday night (thanks to Toronto traffic), I arrived ten minutes late to a free event I had registered for. Upon arrival I was told that I wouldn’t be allowed to attend because they were at capacity.

The event team was *very* apologetic, and invited me to stay for the cocktail hour directly after the event. After having driven in specifically for the event, my initial reaction was disappointment (and admittedly, I was a little frustrated), but I began to think about how I could make the most of my time while I was there.

As I was planning my next steps, I happened to bump into the CEO of a company I had done some LinkedIn training for. Together we went to the on-site restaurant for a glass of wine, and I was able to have a delightful on-on-one meeting with a female senior executive that I have been admiring for some time.

During the cocktail mixer (after the initial event wrapped up), I was able to network alongside this senior executive (partnering up always takes out a lot of the awkwardness of networking with new people) and ended up meeting a ton of incredible new connections. Some of these new connections may even turn into new opportunities for my business.

I realized as I arrived home, that if I had been angry and simply turned around and driven back home again, I wouldn’t have had a one-on-one with the senior executive, nor would I have met some terrific new connections who attended the mixer.

Attitude is everything, my friends. Opportunities lurk behind every corner.

And remember: be kind to event organizers. It’s not their fault when things go wrong; things happen beyond their control but they often do everything they can to make it right.