Opportunism

Being raised in an environment where high morals were expected in almost all circumstances, I was often expected to not act opportunistically. For the most part, this was expected from most people in the town I grew up in, so I didn’t really know anything different until later on in life. I believe this could be the result of a high concentration of Christian upbringings in the area. I was certainty aware of taking advantage of certain opportunities in order to better one’s self, but I didn’t have much experience with people exploiting this at the cost of others well being. My first year here at the University of Illinois proved as an eye opening experience being surrounded by people from all walks of life that might not share the same “good citizen” upbringing. No extreme examples come to mind, but it was apparent that this environment was much more cutthroat than what I was used to. There was defiantly a bit of a transition phase, but I will look at this as a crucial learning experience for this is how the majority of the world actually works. I have also learned that in most cases, success is created through realizing opportunities and taking advantage of them. These lessons will hopefully benefit me after I graduate while working for an organization in the real world.

An example that comes to mind of a time I didn’t act opportunistically is when I let a friend of mine borrow two books for an entire semester. One of these books was a Stewart calculus book that I had previously purchased new for around $200 and the other was a macroeconomics book I had purchased used for $80. With the high price of new textbooks in campus bookstores, a strong market for used textbooks has been created. Renting these books online even cost a significant amount. These two books offered no current use to me, but still held a lot of monetary value. I could have easily sold them on a used textbook website or Facebook student exchange page for a decent profit. I heavily considered this for the calculus book, as I wasn’t very happy with my performance in that class the previous semester and wanted nothing more than to get the book out of my face so that I could move on from the class. At the time, similar books were being sold for around $100 online.

Moving on to the start of the next semester, I became aware that a friend of mine would be taking the same calculus and macroeconomics class that the two books could be used for. He approached me and asked me if I by chance I still had the books from the previous semester and that if I did, he said that he would like to buy them off of me. Having quickly forgotten about the previous semesters books in a hustle to move out of my room at the end of the previous semester, I wasn’t even sure if I still had the books. Fortunately, I had thrown them in the trunk of my car where they were still sitting with a variety of other objects I had given up on. Knowing the price of both of these books new, my friend offered to pay me $120 total for both of the books. Thinking back to this now, this money could have been very helpful to pay for the following semesters books. However, in the midst of our transaction, I simply told him I wasn’t going to accept his money, but rather would accept a beer or two the next time we were both out at a local bar.

Thinking back to this now, if not to buy other books, that money could have been useful for a lot of things. However, I remember at the time that I felt didn’t feel right taking $120 for the books. I realize that although they didn’t offer much use to me at the time, that they still held monetary value. Having to guess what made me deny the money, I would have to say that I believe it was due to the way I was raised. There had to have been some sort of similar transaction that I was apart of or witnessed at a young age that had a similar “Pay it forward” approach. Thinking back to the transaction, I remember being enticed by the opportunity to sell my books, however as our conversation progressed, I quickly decided I wasn’t going to accept the money.