Troy P Zehnder

Before deciding someone isn’t worth the opportunity, remember the person who once believed you were.

There comes a moment in nearly everyone’s life when they find themselves standing outside a door, hoping someone will open it. Perhaps it is the door to a first job, a promotion, a new career, a relationship, or an opportunity to share something meaningful with the world.

They may lack the experience others possess. Their résumé may not reflect their full capabilities. Their name may be unfamiliar, their credentials unconventional, or their accomplishments insufficient to attract immediate attention.

But behind that door stands something they cannot demonstrate until someone gives them the opportunity. Their potential. And most people aren’t asking for success to be handed to them. They’re simply asking for the chance to show what they can do.

The Judgment Before the Opportunity

We live in a world increasingly skilled at evaluating people without ever getting to know them. Applications are screened by algorithms. Résumés are filtered by keywords. Candidates are categorized by educational credentials, employment histories, and years of experience.

Beyond the professional world, people are evaluated by their appearance, age, financial circumstances, social connections, and countless other characteristics. Too young. Too old. Overqualified. Underqualified. Not enough experience. Wrong background. Wrong appearance. Not established enough. Sometimes the labels contradict one another.

Someone may be considered too experienced for one opportunity and insufficiently experienced for another. An individual who has spent decades developing leadership, communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills may be dismissed because those abilities were acquired in an industry different from the one seeking applicants.

A talented writer may struggle to find an audience because nobody recognizes the name. An aspiring speaker may have something profoundly meaningful to communicate but lack the speaking history necessary to receive an invitation. The irony is difficult to ignore.

How does someone gain experience when experience is required before anyone will give them an opportunity?

Qualifications matter. Standards matter. Certain responsibilities require specialized training, proven expertise, and demonstrated competence. But there is a difference between evaluating someone’s readiness and refusing to recognize their potential. A person’s past can tell us where they have been. It does not always tell us where they are capable of going.

When Efficiency Replaces Discovery

Technology has made the process of evaluating people faster than ever. Organizations can review hundreds of applications, rank qualifications, and eliminate candidates without a single conversation. Efficiency has its place. Time and resources are limited, and decisions must be made. But efficiency is not necessarily the same as discernment.

A system designed to recognize familiar qualifications may struggle to identify unfamiliar combinations of experience. It may recognize a job title without understanding the responsibilities behind it. It may identify the absence of a particular credential without recognizing the practical knowledge someone has developed through years of experience.

It may eliminate someone who possesses the very capabilities an organization needs simply because those abilities are described differently. And this problem extends beyond technology. Human beings are equally capable of making premature judgments.

We see someone’s appearance and form an opinion. We hear their occupation and assume we understand their abilities. We discover their age and begin making predictions about their adaptability, energy, or potential. Sometimes those assumptions are accurate. Often, they are incomplete.

The danger is not that we make judgments. It is that we sometimes mistake our judgments for knowledge. And when that happens, we may close a door before discovering what someone could have contributed.

Opportunity Is Not Entitlement

There is an important distinction between asking for an opportunity and demanding an outcome. Someone requesting an interview is not necessarily demanding employment. Someone hoping to speak before an audience is not insisting they deserve a platform. Someone seeking acceptance is not claiming that others owe them recognition, friendship, or affection.

They are asking to be considered. To be heard. To be evaluated on something more meaningful than an assumption. They understand that performance matters, that trust must be earned, and that not every opportunity will result in success. But they also understand something equally important.

You cannot demonstrate what you are capable of doing if you are never given the chance to demonstrate it.

Fair consideration does not guarantee success. It simply allows success to become possible. And sometimes that distinction makes all the difference.

Remember Who Opened the Door for You

There is something remarkable about the way success can change our perspective. When we are beginning, we hope someone will recognize our potential. We want an opportunity to prove ourselves, even when our experience is limited and our accomplishments have yet to be established.

We remember the uncertainty of submitting an application, requesting a meeting, pursuing a relationship, or asking someone to believe in an idea that has not yet produced results. We remember hoping someone would look beyond what we had already accomplished and consider what we might become.

But something can happen once we establish ourselves. We begin evaluating others from the security of positions we once struggled to reach. The person who was hired without experience now insists that every candidate must have years of it. The leader who was once mentored by someone willing to recognize potential becomes reluctant to invest time in an unproven individual. The professional who received an unexpected opportunity begins treating unconventional backgrounds as disqualifications. And the person who once desperately wanted to be heard becomes too busy to listen.

Perhaps it is not always arrogance or deliberate indifference. Sometimes we simply forget. We forget the nervousness of that first interview. We forget the uncertainty of asking for an opportunity. We forget what it felt like to stand outside a door, hoping someone would open it. Most importantly, we forget the person who eventually did.

Very few people reach meaningful positions in life entirely on their own. Somewhere along the way, someone helped create an opportunity. Someone recognized potential before there was proof. Someone offered encouragement before there was success. Someone provided a platform before there was an audience. Someone opened a door.

That decision may have seemed ordinary to the person making it, but it could have changed the direction of another person’s life. And perhaps that is what we should remember when we find ourselves in a position to make decisions about others. Not every person who asks for an opportunity will succeed. Not every request can be granted. But uncertainty also existed when someone first decided to believe in us.

So before dismissing someone because they lack the experience, credentials, connections, or recognition we have come to expect, perhaps we should ask ourselves a simple question:

Would I have qualified for my own opportunity if someone had judged me by the standards I use today? And an even more important one: Who would I be today if nobody had ever given me a chance?

The Potential We Never Discover

We often celebrate the remarkable achievements of people who overcame rejection, adversity, and seemingly impossible circumstances. Their stories inspire us because someone eventually recognized their abilities, or they found a way to demonstrate them despite the obstacles. But what about the people whose opportunities never arrived?

How many capable leaders never received the responsibility that would have revealed their abilities? How many gifted communicators never found an audience willing to listen? How many talented employees were overlooked because their experience did not match a predetermined pattern? How many meaningful relationships never developed because someone made a judgment before having a conversation?

We cannot know. And that uncertainty should make us more thoughtful about the opportunities we have the power to extend. There is no guarantee that every overlooked individual possesses extraordinary talent. But there is equally little reason to assume that someone without an established reputation has nothing valuable to contribute.

Every accomplished person was once inexperienced at something. Every respected leader once had to learn how to lead. Every successful speaker once stood before an audience for the first time. Every recognized author once wrote without the benefit of an established readership. And every person who has achieved something meaningful once faced a moment when their future accomplishments existed only as possibilities.

Someone had to believe those possibilities were worth exploring.

Let Their Light Enter the Room

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used a simple illustration about the importance of allowing light to fulfill its purpose.

“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” — Matthew 5:15 (NIV)

The passage speaks to the visibility and purpose of light. It also offers a meaningful image for considering the abilities and contributions people carry within themselves. A person’s knowledge cannot benefit a conversation they are never invited to join. Their character cannot be demonstrated through an interaction that never occurs. Their ideas cannot inspire an audience they are never permitted to address. Their potential cannot be recognized when every decision about them has already been made.

Not everyone will illuminate a room in the same way. Some bring wisdom developed through experience. Others bring creativity, determination, compassion, leadership, or perspectives that challenge conventional thinking.

Some possess abilities that are immediately recognizable. Others require an opportunity before their strengths become apparent. And sometimes the person we least expect is the one who has the most to contribute. The purpose of opening a door is not to guarantee that everyone who enters will succeed. It is to recognize that we cannot always know what someone has to offer while keeping them on the other side.

The Responsibility That Comes With Opportunity

There is another dimension to this conversation that deserves consideration. When someone gives us an opportunity, they often give us more than access to a position, a platform, or an experience. They give us a measure of trust. They accept some uncertainty about what we might accomplish. They allow us to demonstrate abilities that have not yet been fully established. And when that trust helps us succeed, something changes.

We eventually find ourselves in positions where we can make similar decisions about others. We become the employer reviewing an application. The leader considering a promotion. The organizer deciding who deserves an invitation. The professional determining whose ideas are worth hearing. The individual deciding whether someone deserves a second conversation. We become the people standing on the other side of the door. And at that moment, we have a choice.

We can forget how much an opportunity once meant to us, or we can remember the person who helped us move forward. We can insist that everyone arrive with a history of success, or we can occasionally recognize the promise of someone who has not yet had the opportunity to establish one. We can focus exclusively on what people have already accomplished, or we can remain curious about what they might accomplish next.

This does not require abandoning standards or ignoring legitimate concerns. It requires remembering that someone’s lack of opportunity is not necessarily evidence of a lack of ability. And perhaps one of the most meaningful ways to honor the people who once believed in us is to become the kind of person willing to recognize potential in someone else.

Just Open the Door

Everyone remembers what it feels like to want something that seems just beyond reach. To hope someone will return a call. To wait for an invitation. To wonder whether anyone will recognize the value of what they have to offer. To believe they could make a difference if only someone would give them the opportunity.

And for those who have already achieved a measure of success, perhaps the most important question is not whether they have earned their place. Perhaps it is whether they remember how they first arrived there. Because somewhere in their story, there may be a person who listened when others would not. Someone who saw possibility where others saw inexperience. Someone who decided that an unfamiliar name, an unconventional background, or an unproven ability deserved consideration. Someone who opened a door.

Today, another person may be standing outside a similar door, hoping for the same opportunity. They are not necessarily asking for a guarantee. They are not asking for standards to disappear. They are not asking anyone to hand them success. They are simply asking for a chance.

And before we decide whether to give it to them, perhaps we should remember how different our own lives might have been if someone had decided we weren’t worth the risk. You don’t have to hand someone success. You don’t have to promise them a place in the room. Sometimes, you only have to open the door wide enough to let their light shine through.

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