Windows of Opportunity

Today President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.  The committee saw a window of opportunity to support the new American President in the early days of his first term of office, focusing on his commitment and intention.  President Obama, while accepting the prize, also acknowledged his responsibilities to the American public with regard to armed conflict in such places as Afganistan and Iraq.

Windows of opportunity exist for all of us.  Sometimes we take advantage of these windows of opportunity and sometimes we ignore or miss them.

Our priorities interact with the windows of opportunity we choose to act on and, sometimes, to skip.  For example, if family is a high priority for a certain period of time, we can choose to skip on opportunities which may show up which would have a negative impact on that priority for the family.

Sometimes people place their priorities in their careers and miss opportunities to share with their families.  The desire for "work-life balance" reflects the impact of these trade-offs. 

Sometimes technology and economies interfere with what might otherwise be a window of opportunity.  The history of computing shows examples of the early devices that allowed programming and calculations.  Many of Leonardo DaVinci's ideas became a focus for invention and research long after his death.  Benjamin Franklin was another inspired inventor who pointed the way for later developments.  H.G. Wells  and Jules Verne wrote about scientific inventions which were developed many years after the authors introduced them in literature.

One of the challenges for research, invention, and discovery is that there may be no demand for the product of the research, invention, or discovery at the time it is created.  The "window of opportunity" is not present yet.  In some instances, sufficient numbers of people need to go through the awareness-acceptance-action process in order to create a tipping-point where there is a significant demand for something new.