I wish this statement was true because I would be destined for greatness without even having to lift a finger. I wouldn’t need to hunt fields or hedgerows for a four leafed clover. I wouldn’t need to call Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage to scour roads for road kill to source a Rabbit’s foot. I wouldn’t even need to phone JP McManus to request the loan of a horse shoe. Why? Because I am Irish and there is a well documented saying “The luck of the Irish”.
Fortunately I don’t believe in this statement. I turned my back on luck a long time ago and luck plays no part in my success or quest for success. Since I stopped relying on luck I have regained 100% control of my results and I no longer need that lucky break or that bit of luck. I firmly side with Samuel Goldwyn’s words “The harder I work the luckier I get”. You see it is too easy to use luck and unlucky to explain success or lack of. Jean Cocteau’s words make me smile “We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”
Many individuals lay their future hopes and aspirations firmly at the feet of lady luck when they would probably get more return from lady GaGa. Through work I regularly come across individuals who pay daily homage at the feet of lady luck – praising her for job hunting success and cursing her for lack of job hunting success. Below is a recent example.
EXAMPLE: I was working with a client as part of an outplacement programme for which we covered proactive job search strategies including real world networking. The individual embraced this strategy and became very active attending a number of real world networking events. At one such event they had a conversation with another attendee in the room and this resulted in a job interview. My client gave the credit to lady luck and attributed no credit to their efforts or even more tragically mine 🙂
I don’t see any luck in the outlined example but rather the fruits of hard work generating opportunity.
Would love to hear your views on luck and its importance in achieving success ….