In the early 2000s, Nokia was dominating the mobile phone industry.

It had over 51 percent of the global mobile phone market share.

The other mobile phone producing companies like Samsung, Motorola, Google were just hanging the market place.

But in January of 2007, Steve Jobs shocked the world with the introduction of iPhone.

He literally said, enough of Nokia domination.

iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone industry.

Steve Job’s move could be likened to Donald Trump’s disruptive innovation.

He shook the industry down to its marrow.

The question is, what exactly did Steve Jobs did?

He took Symbian S60 that was known for multitasking and versatile features, changed the key board and the screen and turned it into computer in your pocket a.k.a iPhone.

Meanwhile Nokia have touch-screen prototypes as early as 2004 but they failed to commercialize them, thereby leaving the door open for Steve Jobs to not only revolutionize the industry but send Nokia out of the market.

It was an opportunity that Nokia had in their palms but allowed it to pass them by.

The fate of Nokia is the fate of most people in business today.

The failure to look inwards and take what you have to the next level.

Most people are walking around every day hoping that opportunity will knock on their doors, that someone will hand them perfect idea, perfect timing, perfect chance!

This people wait and wait and nothing happens.

The truth is that opportunity does not knock on anybody’s door.

Opportunity is never loud, rather it whispers, it hides, it tests you.

Opportunity shows up disguised as a problem, a setback or a risk and most people see it and flee the other way.

That was the problem with Nokia.

They saw iPhone as a setback so they continued to rely on the clunky Symbian system rather than switching to modern technology, forgetting that in business, once you fail to evolve, you go into extinction, the more reason they lost their market dominance and eventually sold their mobile division to Microsoft in 2013.

Every big business, every major breakthrough started with someone noticing something that nobody else wants to notice.

This could be a flaw in the system, a gap in the business or a need that everyone ignores but instead of walking past it he leaned into it.

By 2005, Steve Jobs had realized that the Symbian series had become outdated and difficult for developers because technology had advanced beyond what it was offering, so there was need for faster and more sophisticated devices, especially, the one that would combine ipod with a phone.

That was what gave birth to iPhone.

He and his team must have asked questions and experimented on them

They must have failed but tried again and again until finally iPhone was born.

So, the key to success in business is not luck.

It is the courage to see what is invisible, to act when others hesitate.

It is the courage to take up the challenge to confront what feels uncertain, uncomfortable or even scary because the biggest win, the ones that everyone remembers does not go to the cautious.

It goes to the person who is willing to chase what others are unwilling to see.

So ask yourself, how many opportunities have you walked past today and how many of them could have changed your life if you have decided to take action.

Remember this. The small thing you do every day with focus and intensity will determine your days, weeks and months ahead and it all starts with you.

It starts with a new commitment to take your future seriously, to take new actions, to get uncomfortable, to take risks, to constantly improve every single and the best part it all starts now

Open your eyes and see the opportunities around you and start making use of them.

•Peter Anosike has a Ph.D in Consulting and Profit Management. He is an international bestselling author and founder, Ultimate Entrepreneurs Academy, an organisation that trains college students, under graduates and even workers on how to become successful entrepreneurs. Google Anosike Peter for some of his bestselling books.

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