Getting ahead — in life and your career — isn't always easy.
Success often depends on your ability to spot a promising opportunity, and then summoning the courage to act on it while managing the fear of everything that could go wrong. That can be true whether you're dreaming of launching your own business, working up the nerve to start a new career or chasing a big promotion.
CNBC Make It recently spoke with a series of highly successful people about the turning points that ended up defining their careers, paving the way for their success. Here are some of their best tips for recognizing a window of opportunity and understanding when to jump through it.
Start with calm self-reflection
If you're craving more certainty in your life, try some form of meditation or thoughtful reflection.
Yoga and meditation helped Joe Kudla step back and think clearly during the early days of his business, when he was within four weeks of running out of money and desperate for a strategy to save his company.
"They served me really well in just taking time to be still, sit with my thoughts and focus on that clarity," Kudla, the founder and CEO of activewear startup Vuori, told Make It in March. "When you do that, you'll develop a more unbiased, objective sense of awareness that will help you identify patterns in your business."
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Similarly, Kind Snacks founder and executive chairman Daniel Lubetzky recommends unplugging to "go on a long walk." The simple act clears space and time for you to ask yourself thoughtful, objective questions to help determine how serious you really are about pursuing an idea.
"Close your eyes and just think ... What do I want? What is important to me? What do I want to get out of life? What do I want to accomplish?" Lubetzky told Make It in February.
Being in a relaxed state, or even letting your mind wander, can help you think with more clarity and creativity, research shows.
Do your research and understand the risks
Don't be blinded by the sheer optimism of a life-changing opportunity, or anchored by the pessimism of everything that could go wrong. Many successful people find and maintain a balance between those extremes throughout their careers.
"Sometimes, you can take big risks. Sometimes, you need to be very safe and methodical about how to back out of situations. Control the things you can control and acknowledge the things you can't control," Peter Beck, founder and CEO of billion-dollar aerospace company Rocket Lab, told Make It in April.
As the leader of a company that regularly launches rockets into space, Beck noted that the risks in his business can be significant. As a result, he starts by being "very analytical" when vetting any potential opportunity, so he can fully consider all of the pros and cons before making a decision.
It's exactly that sort of preparation that allows you to confidently follow your gut when you discover a risk worth taking, he said: "Back your intuition and go for it. You have to see windows of opportunity and run into them."
Sallie Krawcheck, a longtime trailblazing female bank executive who's now the CEO of digital investment and wealth management platform Ellevest, agrees. She also calls herself "incredibly analytical," and recommends making all your biggest decisions "based off of the facts and the numbers," she told Make It in May.
Prepare for failure, but don't let it stop you
Part of recognizing risk is understanding that you could ultimately fail. Be prepared for that possibility.
Visualizing negative outcomes can help you prepare for them, spurring you to brainstorm potential backup plans and helping you to overcome fears of failure that could hold you back from even trying, research shows. You can imagine potential setbacks as learning opportunities, rather than crippling defeats.
When Alexa von Tobel dropped out of Harvard Business School at age 24 to launch online financial advisory firm LearnVest, she knew she was taking "a very big risk," she told Make It in July. She tried to be realistic about how it could all go wrong: Falling flat would likely have cost von Tobel her life savings, along with more than $1 million she initially raised from investors.
Ultimately, she decided that embracing the risk would be better than the alternative — not trying at all. She forged ahead with LearnVest, which attracted 1.5 million users by the time she sold the company to Northwestern Mutual for a reported $375 million in 2015.
"I assumed I would fail, and I was comfortable with that," she said. "But at least I would have left it on the field."
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