When Life Gives You Lemons, Don’t Just Make Lemonade!

 

I’m sure most of you have heard the phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”  The basis of this quote or phrase is when you are faced with adversity, change it around and do something with it.  When life gives you a lemon, don’t just get down and feel bad for yourself.  Do something with the lemon, like make lemonade.  To tell you the truth, I kind of live by this quote, but in another way.  I consider lemons opportunities, not challenges.  Not only that, but I try and find my own lemons on occasion. I don’t always like to wait for life to give me a lemon, I want to find it and create an opportunity.    I feel that challenges are what breed opportunities.  There is a difference from those who think a challenge is just another thing in life to those who face those challenges and make opportunities out of them.  Some of the best inventions were created because of responses to life’s lemons.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, then sell it for a profit!

As you can see from the photo, I added a little verbiage to the quote.  For the most part, I am saying, don’t just settle for lemonade.  How can you expand on the “lemons?”  What I want people to know is when you have an opportunity in life, don’t just settle for the opportunity.  You need to see if you can expand on that opportunity and create more for yourself.  The people who have a lot of money and are successful in life are the ones who don’t just settle for life’s opportunities.  They take advantage of those opportunities, but then use the motivation to create more.

No matter what your goal is, paying off debt or growing wealth, you need to take advantage of every challenge which passes in front of you.  Trust me, when I was deep in debt, I didn’t let challenges get me down. I grabbed life by the horns (sorry Dodge) and did what I could with every opportunity.  That is how you succeed both financially and in life.  We only get so many glasses of lemonade in life, so why not enjoy a cold glass, but then do something more?

An Example of Expanding Opportunities

What’s just talking about it without an example. Since it’s my blog, I figured I would give you an example about me.  Come on, you know you want to hear it!  So, for those of you who don’t know, I don’t just blog here.  I also blog over at Frugal Rules, on Daily Finance, the Huffington Post, Sprout Wealth, and Empowered Shopper.  The first lemon came when I got into debt.  I made lemonade by getting out of debt, but didn’t stop there.  I expanded on my opportunity of being debt free and started a blog.  Just blogging on the site is fine, but I wanted more.  Because of this site, I have been afforded many other opportunities.  Things I never thought I would be able to do. I have been in large publications, in podcasts, and even on the radio.  I never could have imagined where the blog would take me.  So, I turned a challenge into an opportunity, then expanded on that for more opportunities.

I could have stopped with my blog and writing on others, but I don’t run that way. I keep going when the gas is flowing.  After being a blogger for two years, people started asking me technical questions about their blogs.  Since I have been on Wordpress since the beginning, I typically can answer those questions.  Now, since I noticed people would ask me many questions about their blogs, I didn’t just answer them. I answered them and helped them do something about it.

Over time, I realized I would start a blog management service for those wishing to just deal with blogging and I would deal with the technical issues.  Not every blogger knows how to do the technical stuff, but I do. I have been doing this for a long time.  My business is growing and people are contacting me every week for help.  It feels good that my name is being spread by other bloggers I have helped.

I took my site (the lemonade) and grew it and make other sites (expanded opportunities). I didn’t stop there. I noticed a need for other bloggers and for people in the industry. I took it upon myself to offers services to other bloggers who need help.  I got an opportunity and I built upon it.  That is how it works and what I’m talking about here.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Don’t Just Make Lemonade, Go Further!

What do you think about this concept?  How do you handle opportunities?  Do you just take them and move on or do you expand on them and create even more?

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10 Comments

  1. My interpretation of this phrase has been entirely different. Rather than opportunities turning into more opportunities, lemons have always represented problems and obstacles to me, and the lemonade has been about turning those obstacles into the opportunities.

    1. I can understand that. While traditionally the “lemon” is a challenge, I think challenges are just opportunities in disguise. I thrive on challenges. Not only do I make lemonade, but I think expand on that glass and do more with it.

  2. Right on here, Grayson. No matter what the obstacle or the opportunity, more can be made out of it if one is willing to put in the time and the effort. And I love your addition to this saying – profit is always awesome. 🙂

    1. Thanks Laurie. The profit thing was just an easy way of saying, don’t just stop at the opportunity, expand it.

  3. Derrick horvath says:

    Totally agree. No reason to stop and get complacent. If you can take an opportunity that turns into more than you originally imagined then continue going for it. Nice motivational article Grayson!

    1. Thanks Derrick! I appreciate your comment. I don’t like stopping at the original opportunity. I always try to grow them into more and more.

  4. Good motivational message! There is never a reason to stop or be satisfied just because things get more difficult. I love the challenges that blogging brings and hopefully can figure out a secure path to turn this into a five-figure per month business myself.

    1. I would love to have a five-figure monthly income, but I don’t have the time to get that done. I am close, but need to secure a few more clients in order to get that to happen.

  5. I am always amazed at how you get everything done. I do think after you pay off a mountain of debt, it makes you think anything is possible with enough hard work. At least that’s how I’ve felt for the last few years. If I’d applied half the effort to the first decade of my career as I have for the past three or four years, I could be retired already, but just gives me another lemon to turn into something better.

    1. I don’t even know how I do it most days Kim. Running on hopes and dreams!

      I agree with you. If I would have applied myself in the first few years of my career, who knows where I could be or what situation I could be in. Oh well, just more lemons to turn into lemonade and then profit!