Opportunities missed. What are the greatest opportunities missed you can recall?

[applegrove]

My dad worked with the trucking industry. One of the businessmen he dealt with had a frozen food empire. He offered to make our family a 'test family' for their frozen desserts. My dad said no because of conflict of interest.

A friend of my moms was into anitiquing in rural Quebec (where all the best pine stuff is because the history there goes back 400 years). Someone offered to sell her a barn full of old armours in the 1970s. She said no. Had she bought it and held onto it for a decade she would have made a fortune.

[mopinko]

1. i could have had a one night stand with an intense and

handsome classical cello player, but decided not to cheat on my asshole not yet first husband.

[elleng]

2. Not marrying the P.O.S.

:(

[BiggJawn]

3. Radio Officer's Union.

Got an invitation in 1986 or so to become an apprentice to the Maritime Radio Officer's Union. I was 29 and freshly divorced at the time, working a shit job.
Would have been a short career, Morse operations on the high seas ended in 1999...

[Kat45]

4. Got myself on the guest list to see Guns'N'Roses in a club back in 1987.

I had only heard one song twice, but I liked it and wanted to go. I was real tired from a lot of partying that week and I was working late so I blew it off! No, it's not a big missed lifetime opportunity but a missed opportunity nonetheless. Was kicking myself for years for not going, particularly when they got huge.

[csziggy]

5. My Mom didn't buy the Delorean she was offered

For really, really cheap. It didn't run but it looked so cool. None of us kids could believe that she had even considered it. This is a woman who still drives the 1977 Cadillac Sedan deVille she bought new (it has about 45,000 miles on it). The only way I could picture her driving a Delorean is if somebody Photoshopped her into a picture of one.

Apparently she was kind of serious about it - she's mentioned regretting it a few times since she turned it down.

[Lucian]

6. Too many, unfortunately.

[Iggo]

7. I was metal and she was punk.

I chickened out.

Shouldn't've.

[guitar man]

8. 1981

I had the chance to buy a very nice 1957 gold top Gibson Les Paul for $600 and passed on it.

:banghead:

[OriginalGeek]

21. OW - that hurts ALMOST as much as the one I gave away

early 80s, a friend had a boyfriend who was into guitars. He up and left her in the middle of the night with bills to pay and kids to feed took the cash from her purse. She was pisssssssed so she sold off most of his guitars (that he for some reason left behind - he had 5 or 6 and I think he just took one with him. No room? Didn;t care? I dunno...) BUT she gave me one of them because I had expressed an interest in learning at some point.

It was a Gibson Firebird. I knew absolutely nothing about guitars and had no idea of the value of anything. I never learned to play it even though I took a couple cheap lessons. But one day it fell over and smacked the floor hard enough to crack the neck. A guy who I worked with was selling off some vinyl records one day so I went over to grab some and we got to talking about my broken guitar and he showed me his fully functional Sigma guitar. He talked me into trading straight up.

:|

It was only much later I found out how much it was worth and that he knew full well it was and full well I had no idea.

It was also a little while later I heard he broke is back in a lighter-than-air aircraft accident - it was basically a go-cart with wings and a propeller that another guy I knew had and that guy flew it all over. He was teaching Mr Take Advantage of Dumb Kids to fly and TOLD him do NOT pull back or accelerate on ANYTHING. just drive it around the open field to get a feel for it. Mr Rat Bastard decided he knew better and took off and got about 30 feet up and didn't know what to do so he came 30 feet right the fuck back down. He was in the hospital for a long time but eventually got better. I didn't visit him.

I don't believe in karma but I didn't mind hearing about his accident. I also learned that it is a free country and people should be allowed to make dumb mistakes but it's still a dick move to deliberately cheat someone like that. Decent people don't do that. I also learned to research my own shit before making any moves like that. Now that there's internet that is quite a bit easier.

Oh and I never learned to play the Sigma either. I couldn't even tell you where it is now.

[guitar man]

22. Damn

Yeah depending on the year it was made, that Firebird could be worth gawd knows how much.

I know that recently, 57 through 59 Les Pauls have fetched well into 6 figures at auction :wow:

[OriginalGeek]

24. My first car was a 1968 Firebird

I bought the body for 250 bucks when I was 15 and the motor for 250 bucks when I was 16 and worked on restoring it until I got my full license at 17 and promptly wrecked it into a telephone pole one week after getting my license.

Got to go on one date in it though. (with the now fundie conservative girl from another thread lol).


I wonder if I am just not meant to have Firebirds.


lol, yeah, I am on a Led Zeppelin mailing list and those guys are always drooling over Les Pauls they see on line and at auction. We Zep fans have a lotta love for Les Paul and his guitar. At least once a month someone promises to win the lottery and get everyone one lol.

Where were they when I was dropping Gibsons on the damn floor!?!? Oh yeah - there was no mailing list except what you got from the post office then...

[guitar man]

27. My best friend and recording studio partner has a lot of Gibsons

I've lost count but I know he has 3 Les Pauls, 5 or 6 SGs, 3 Firebirds a Les Paul Jr. and a couple Explorers. Damn I hate him! Lol :P

[BlueIris]

44. Ouch.

Damn.

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. I was a 70's MGM student in California. I was offered a scholarship to a school few can afford,

much less qualify to get into.

I accepted, but by '79 when I graduated high school I was tired of the whole mess.

It's a taboo subject at my parents' house. They thought I was going to be an astronaut.

[HopeHoops]

10. Not buying that '88 Colony Park in mint condition.

[Throd]

11. 1967 Mustang fastback 390 4-speed for $1000

It was a rough car, but it was all there. I didn't buy it because I was "GM" guy. In retrospect, GM stood for "giant moron".

[Denninmi]

12. I was the subject of a Mrs. Robinson's affections.

I was in my mid-20's, she was older and married and unhappy, we were co-workers. I didn't want to go there, but we easily could have. Now I kind of wish I had. I haven't seen her in a number of years, but my family knows hers socially. She was pretty awesome.

[trof]

20. Well I did, and I don't regret it.

I knew her brother and he introduced us at a party.
I was never exactly clear about whether she was just separated from her husband or actually divorced.
I was mid-20s and she was mid-to-late 30s.
She'd get a room in a posh hotel and invite me over for room service dinner.
She was very well educated and highly intelligent.
I was flattered as hell.
It was a nice relationship and then we both moved on.
If I lived in that city I think we'd still be friends.
:-)

[guitar man]

23. I had that opportunity too

and I didn't turn it down :evilgrin:

I was 19 and she was 41, and quite a looker :o

[hifiguy]

13. Accepted job offer from the firm I clerked with after second year

instead of going to the other firm that made me a post-grad employment offer. The second firm had a three-week trial boot camp sponsored by the ATLA for all first year litigation associates in which you went through an entire mock case from filing the complaint to trying it in moot court. The "training" I got at the first firm proved to be partners telling war stories twice a month. To this day I don't know why I didn't accept the offer from the second firm. I liked everyone I interviewed with and they weren't class-conscious assholes like the people at the firm I clerked at.

I'd have been prepared for another job even if I hadn't stuck with the second firm. I didn't at the first and was never able to catch up, professionally speaking. And an asshole there blackballed me with every firm I applied at for years.

Come to think of it, I probably should have taken the 3-year free ride scholarship from USC law and BS'd my way into some doctoral level political science courses. LA has a much nicer climate than Cambridge, Mass.

[applegrove]

16. Aw Cambridge is gorgeous. You are lucky to live there.

[hifiguy]

17. That was a LONG time ago!

I will just say that Raygun was president when I was in law school. Great town to be a student w/o a car though. Everything one could want was within walking distance or a short ride on the T: Cheap (and good) Chinese restaurants, bookstores, record shops, comic shop, newsstand, the Harvard Coop, grocery and liquor stores, and a plethora of pizza/hoagie places.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Not finding that buried treasure.

:(

[RedCloud]

15. Beautiful young lady offered to share an umbrella

It was a heavy downpour and my roommate came by at that moment saying get in the car and stop trying to rape that gal. Oh I was pissed.

[WinkyDink]

26. Bus stop..............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXKBUPEGcGA

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. I was offered a job in Norway in the early 1980s

I didn't take it because basically, I was overwhelmed at the logistics of moving overseas, and I was sure the job market here would open up eventually. (It did.)

But the way things have gone in this country, I could kick myself for not overcoming my fears, especially since going back to Norway for a visit this past summer.

[BlueIris]

46. Oh, gosh. You could have been chilling in a country untainted by Bush this whole time. nt

[NewJeffCT]

19. The night before my first wedding

I figured there was no way it would work between the two of us and I was ready to call the whole thing off. However, I figured I was just getting cold feet and being silly, and went ahead with the wedding... if I had just taken the opportunity to cancel the wedding, I would have saved myself and my then fiancee and future ex-wife a lot of trouble over the next few years. Not to mention, I would have saved myself tens of thousands of dollars in expenses in trying to keep up with her spending habits. (I had so much debt when we divorced that the judge granted her 0 alimony)

[WinkyDink]

25. Don't get me started. :-)

[KatyaR]

28. Right out of college, I turned down a job to teach music for a year at a private school

in Jerusalem. It would have been a minimal existence, but what an experience. Unfortunately my mom said no--she was too afraid to let me go there for that long, and I never developed the guts to tell her to stuff it and then go do what I actually wanted.

I'm no longer religious at all, but I still wish I'd said yes.

[idiotgardener]

29. I thought $80 was too much for a ticket to see David Bowie.

Now I would happily pay more.

[JohnnyLib2]

30. Janis Joplin sang a couple of miles away in Marin County.

We coulda/shoulda gone, but stayed home with the new baby. Might have altered his entire life....

[tabbycat31]

31. my whole college career

I would have told my parents to shove it and gone to my first choice school.

Instead I went to a school that was all wrong for me and was unable to transfer to a residential school because "they needed the $$$ for my sister."

I hear stories of people's wonderful college experiences and I feel that it was a chapter ripped out of my life story, and hearing others makes me want to cry. I wish I had the spine to tell my parents where to shove it when I was 18.

[fizzgig]

32. i stayed home for college

i wonder how different my life would be had i left. but my life isn't all that bad and i'm crazy for my husband, so maybe i'm where i'm supposed to be.

[laylah]

40. ...

:hug::loveya:

[Maccagirl]

33. I visited London and didn't do the Abbey Road "crosswalk thing"

Damn!

[begin_within]

34. I could have bought 2 copies of the Beatles' "Butcher cover" album for $100 in 1981

But I didn't realize they would increase in value so much. They were "unpeeled," i.e., they still had the pasted-over "trunk" photo cover on them, and I did not know what the process would involve in removing that. Of course I wish now I had just bought them as-is then.

That, and numerous hook-up opportunities that I passed on, stupidly, and now regret.

[Nikia]

35. Maybe I should have accepted another temp assignment

In research at a major corporation instead of taking a full time job in quality in the food industry. Who knows if I would have been permanently hired. If I had though, I think that I would have been much happier.
My father probably would have been a famous rock star if my mother hadn't made him stay close to home and limit his gigs.

[InvisibleTouch]

36. Two come immediately to mind.

I was once offered a job at a museum but turned it down, saying I had to finish grad school. Finishing grad school turned out to be useless, and that museum job might have been fascinating. Maybe not entirely and completely what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but better than what I did do, at least during the ensuing decade.

Around that same time I could have become permanently romantically attached to someone with whom I was having a semi-casual affair, but I turned him down. Although we are still friends and our lives have run somewhat parallel courses, it might in the end have been a good choice. He has too many people in and out of his life on a daily basis; I like my solitude, and I would have gone out of my mind.

[Grantuspeace]

37. Not personally, but this years Milwaukee Brewers and Wisconsin Badgers.

:(

[Xipe Totec]

38. Joining Microsoft whenit was still dicking around with tiny BASIC nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

39. Maybe if I had answered that email from the nice guy in Nigeria...........

I would be rich today.

:shrug:

[mnhtnbb]

41. Decided not to buy Apple at $27. because I was worried what would happen if Jobs died.

[wysimdnwyg]

42. What could have been Mrs. Wysimdnwyg

Several years ago, I dated a woman from another city. She was damn near perfect - or at least, I was so enamored with her that any imperfections didn't matter. Unfortunately, I screwed around (not that kind of screwing around) and didn't move to her city quickly enough. I think she a) got tired of waiting, and b) could see that I was not ready for marriage, so she went her own way. I was heartbroken, but felt like I got over it quickly, as I was also realizing that I was not ready. I look back now and realize that she was probably the one, and I missed my chance.

Nothing else comes close.

[Raven]

43. Not many but I've dodged a hell of a lot of bullets! n/t

[BlueIris]

45. Passed on the chance to attend Barnard.

That still hurts.