Opportunity: Optimizing Life's ChancesDonald Morris, 2006 - 461 pages Can you recognize an opportunity when it comes your way? Even though the concept seems fairly basic, most people harbor regrets about missed opportunities that in retrospect might have significantly improved their lives. This book will give you the critical tools to sort through the complexities that often obscure the perception of an opportunity and help you take full advantage of what author Donald Morris calls "high-end opportunities" -- pivotal situations that can change your life for the better. Morris begins by developing a model of opportunity in the abstract, analyzing its elements and the contexts and frameworks that affect our recognition of opportunities. Drawing from a wide range of applications, including investing, business, law, criminology, gambling, and even religion, he shows how opportunities can be defined in various contexts. He also examines highly undesirable situations, where opportunity is lacking, such as poverty and historical instances of slavery, to further illustrate, by way of contrast, the defining characteristics of opportunity. How does a significant opportunity differ from a simple option? How does taking advantage of opportunities differ from being an opportunist? Does our ability to predict the future affect our opportunities? What do we mean by equality of opportunity? By addressing these and other probing questions, Morris shows how to develop more critical perceptions of real opportunities. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... Regret vs. remorse The elements - three examples Putting it all together - Robinson Crusoe The metaphor of a harbor Opportunity and our changing social awareness The road ahead Questioning your understanding Preliminary questions 15 17 ...
... Regret vs. remorse The elements - three examples Putting it all together - Robinson Crusoe The metaphor of a harbor Opportunity and our changing social awareness The road ahead Questioning your understanding Preliminary questions 15 17 ...
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... Regret and remorse - marketing's blunders- raise it up the flagpole , to half - staff CHAPTER THREE OTHER CONTEXTS OF OPPORTUNITY - LAW , GAME THEORY , FINANCE , BUSINESS STRATEGY , AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP The law - motive , means , and ...
... Regret and remorse - marketing's blunders- raise it up the flagpole , to half - staff CHAPTER THREE OTHER CONTEXTS OF OPPORTUNITY - LAW , GAME THEORY , FINANCE , BUSINESS STRATEGY , AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP The law - motive , means , and ...
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... Regret or remorse 232 The opportunity to do and the opportunity to be Problem , choice , and value 235 236 CHAPTER TEN PREDICTING THE FUTURE 239 The light of experience illuminates the future 240 Distortions in our organization of the ...
... Regret or remorse 232 The opportunity to do and the opportunity to be Problem , choice , and value 235 236 CHAPTER TEN PREDICTING THE FUTURE 239 The light of experience illuminates the future 240 Distortions in our organization of the ...
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 15 |
CHAPTER | 21 |
The matrix of opportunitythe context elements and framework | 27 |
Putting it all togetherRobinson Crusoe | 34 |
Questioning your understanding | 40 |
CHAPTER | 42 |
Riskgambling without a full deck | 51 |
Catalyst criminology and opportunity | 57 |
Regret or remorse | 232 |
CHAPTER | 239 |
Distortions in our organization of the pastextra meaning | 246 |
Prediction and opportunity | 252 |
Economic prediction | 263 |
Gamblingthe source of statistical studies of probability | 278 |
CHAPTER TWELVE | 284 |
Marketingtechnology product and industry life cycles | 294 |
CHAPTER THREE | 66 |
Business strategy and SWOT analysis | 73 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 84 |
Equality of opportunity | 102 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 114 |
The poverty linerelative and absolute measures of poverty | 120 |
Conclusions | 136 |
Slavery | 148 |
PredestinationJohn Calvin | 157 |
Camus The Stranger and the lack of hope | 164 |
CHAPTER SEVEN | 168 |
CHAPTER EIGHT | 184 |
Robinson Crusoe | 200 |
Sacrifice | 226 |
Human nature predicting conduct | 300 |
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | 310 |
Induction and superstition | 321 |
CHAPTER FOURTEEN | 333 |
The great chain of being | 343 |
The hierarchy in 1300Dantes Paradise | 350 |
Keplers death knell for circular assumptions | 356 |
The other shoethe new emphasis on methodFrancis Bacon | 362 |
Questions | 375 |
NOTES | 395 |
WORKS CITED | 443 |
457 | |
Common terms and phrases
ability action Albert Bandura Amos Tversky Aristotle assumptions behavior believe Bell Curve better Books Calvin Cambridge catalyst causes chance chapter choice Christian concept condition context cost crime criminal Crusoe culture of poverty Daniel Kahneman Dante decision Divine Divine Comedy economic economists effect equal opportunity example experience explain external Faust Gallup Organization gambling game theory George Bernard Shaw gifts God's hell hierarchy high-end opportunities Ibid improve individual inductive involves J. W. von Goethe John John Dewey learned helplessness lives means nity oppor options outcome Oxford past percent person Philosophy poor prayer predicting the future present problem produce question reason recognizing opportunity religion result risk sacrifice salvation scientific seeking Self-Efficacy Seneca sense situation slaves social society solution someone souls specific success talents theory things tion tradition trans tunity understanding University Press worldview York