Hidden Gold

It was just past noon in Mexico City, and I was dying. The kind of heat that makes you question every life choice that led you to standing on hot pavement.

I was watching this street vendor, and what I saw blew my mind.

This guy took a plain cucumber, literally the most boring thing in the produce aisle and with just salt and lime, he had people lined up around the block. Kids were pulling on their mom’s shirts begging for change. Suits were ditching their fancy lunch meetings.

For a cucumber.

No secret recipe. No fancy setup. No Instagram marketing. Just one thing: he saw what nobody else did.

That moment kicked me in the gut. Because I realized the biggest opportunities in business aren’t hiding in some lab or requiring millions of dollars to discover.

They’re right in front of us. We’re just blind to them.

Last month, I got a desperate call from a client. They were about to kill one of their product lines. Sales were garbage, profits were worse, and everyone had already moved on mentally.

But in the final “let’s bury this thing” meeting, some floor supervisor who’d been there forever spoke up.

“Hold on,” he said. “Yeah, the product is crap. But that packaging system we built? That thing is a beast.”

The room went dead silent.

“We spent two years perfecting that machine. It’s faster than anything out there. Never breaks down. Handles any size. And we’re just gonna throw it away?”

Six months later, they’re making more money licensing that packaging technology than they ever made from the original product. That supervisor? He’s now their Chief Innovation Officer making bank.

Because he saw what everyone else missed.

This stuff is everywhere once you start looking. Companies throwing millions at “innovation” while sitting on gold they can’t see. A boring process that could make millions as a service. Data that’s screaming about a new market. Some employees whose “crazy” ideas could change everything.

The treasure is already there. Someone just needs to see it.

That vendor taught me something huge: he wasn’t selling cucumbers. He was selling relief from the heat. A quick, healthy snack. A moment of happiness in a brutal afternoon.

He saw what people actually needed, not just what he was holding.

Your hidden gold might be that process everyone complains about but actually works perfectly for something else. Could be data you’re collecting but ignoring. Maybe it’s that employee who keeps pitching ideas that seem “off-brand” but could open up whole new worlds.

Hell, it might be that product line you’re about to kill that contains your next breakthrough.

The opportunities are there. I guarantee it.

The question is: are you looking with fresh eyes, or are you stuck seeing what you’ve always seen?

While your competitors are chasing the next shiny thing, you could be cashing in on what you already have.

That vendor didn’t need an MBA or venture capital. He just needed to see potential where others saw produce.

What’s your cucumber?

What boring, ordinary thing in your business could be extraordinary if you looked at it differently?

What’s that thing your team dismisses as “just how we do it” that could actually be your secret weapon?

The answers are sitting there, waiting for someone brave enough to see past the obvious.

Sometimes the next big thing isn’t new at all. Sometimes it’s something you already own, just waiting for the right pair of eyes.

That heat in Mexico City was brutal. But watching that guy turn nothing into something? That was pure magic.

Your magic is waiting too. You just gotta know where to look.

The Future is now

Jesus (Jes) Vargas is the Principal at DPMG Corp in Sacramento, CA. Jes and his team consult, coach and mentor business leaders in areas such as strategic planning, leadership development and Lean Thinking deployment. If you are concerned that there is not enough long-term strategic thinking going on in your organization, Jes can help. Call Jes at 916 712 6145. Or you can email him here.