A friend called me today to say he’d been offered a complimentary, all-access pass to this weekend’s Formula 1 race in Las Vegas. He was on the fence at first but decided to accept the offer because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He pulled the trigger and made travel arrangements.

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities don’t come my way often (of course), but when one does, I try to quantify the magnitude of the opportunity and then act quickly to capitalize on it if it’s truly great and rare. I’ve found that truly rare opportunities don’t last long. If you don’t take advantage of one, someone else will—with lightning speed.