Find a Penny, Pick It Up

Today as I was running, my eye caught a glint of something shiny on the road just ahead of me. I welcomed the opportunity to pause and catch my breath as I bent over to see what it was. It was a penny. A really beat up penny which, compounded by the humidity outside and my own poor ability to focus early in the morning, made it impossible to tell if it was heads-up or heads-down.

I picked it up, ignoring any childish superstitions I still carry about luck and the direction a penny is facing when you find it. I wouldn’t normally act so recklessly, but today I suppose I was feeling invincible. Or maybe I decided that I wanted to know more about this particular penny and the only way to do so was to throw caution to the wind and put the sucker in my hand where I could examine it up close and personal. Even as I held it inches from my face, it was difficult to identify much about it. I had to flip it back and forth several times before I found a distinguishable marking…the outline of the Lincoln Union Shield minted on pennies since 2010.

By this time, I had flipped it back and forth so many times, that I couldn’t remember on which side I had started. The 12-year-old me knew that the arrival of good or bad luck was now set in stone…that happened the minute I picked it up. Thus, the 42-year-old me curled my fist around the tiny piece of copper-plated zinc and continued on my way ready to accept whatever fate awaited me.  

   

Since I was running with a friend and we were talking, I gave only a few seconds of thought to the penny before returning to our conversation. A little while later, after my friend and I parted ways, I returned my attention to the 2.5-gram coin which was nestled in my sweaty palm. 

Many people believe that the penny shouldn’t be minted anymore. It costs the U.S. government 1.8 cents to produce each one-cent piece. Also, they are practically useless save their ability to produce exact change or their perceived ability to conjure good luck. In fact, if you Google this issue, your search will yield pages and pages of results. Campaigns to abolish the penny are a real thing. As are campaigns to keep it. The dispute is a gateway to a deep rabbit hole which is, in my personal view, every bit as useless as some claim the penny to be. As I walked the five blocks back to my house, though, I considered that found penny as a metaphor for opportunity in general.

Many of us ignore opportunities placed on our path because, like a heads-down penny, they aren’t positioned just right. Maybe they aren’t in perfect condition or, like my penny, they don’t tell us enough at first glance. Maybe there is something about where they lie – in the outstretched hands of someone we don’t like or in a place we don’t want to go – that makes them undesirable. Something about the less-than-ideal conditions convinces us to leave that opportunity lying on the path for someone else. 

In fact, we hold enormous power to direct where an opportunity takes us. Although there may be, at times, some luck involved, the role of luck is no greater than our will to overcome obstacles, our resilience in accepting outcomes, and our ability to learn lessons. We can't predict where an opportunity will take us, but we always have the power to choose how it impacts us.

Others ignore opportunities that they deem unworthy of their time. It won’t generate sufficient monetary compensation. It won’t produce recognition that is proportional to effort. Maybe it won’t do enough to cure, mitigate, alleviate, or solve whatever problem it is addressing. Perhaps we feel that some opportunities are simply beneath us. If it truly has value, we shouldn’t have to stoop that low to pick it up. No one would leave a good opportunity where dirty feet and heavy wheels might crush it. 

The fact remains that pennies are still money and all money carries some value. Even those that have been driven over and stepped on so many times that you can’t distinguish between heads and tails. If you collect enough pennies, eventually you will have a dollar or $5.00 or $100 dollars. You have to pick them up, though, if you want them to amount to anything. 

The same is true of opportunities…even those that appear insignificant on their own or too distorted and unfamiliar to be dependable. Seize each opportunity and they can be strung together to create skills, experiences, and relationships. Amass sufficient skills, experiences, and relationships and you may one-day find that you’ve crafted a career, business, or network.

Regardless, you will have definitely created a life.