Everyone Else Is So Lucky…

Wow, I can’t believe how much money he makes as a lawyer, how lucky. He only got into the NBA because he’s so tall, he’s just lucky. She’s so lucky her kids all get along. When others have accomplishments we envy, we’re quick to judge them as a form of luck. They were just in the right place at the right time. They were born that way.

If we dig a deeper, however, we’ll find the vast majority of successful people have spent an incredible amount of time working toward their accomplishments. When you simply call them lucky (or they call themselves lucky) it robs them of the effort they put into reaching their goals. They capitalized on opportunity! Now, yes, there are definitely elements of luck, but it’s a curious fact those who work harder tend to be more lucky. How could that be?

Work Hard For What You Want

What’s assumed as luck is actually hard work. This hard work creates opportunities, or what some call luck. Let’s take a music career as an example – someone might get lucky and make one video, which goes viral. Maybe, but you’re more likely to create a viral video if you make new music daily. You’re more likely to make a viral video if you’re constantly marketing your music. Or if you’re networking with others in the industry. 

The point is not to entirely dispel the role of luck, as it certainly exists. Instead, what I hope to point out is that you too can open opportunities by working hard. Giant strokes of luck rarely fall on people, and when they do, they often don’t last. The key here to getting lucky often is to be in the right position when opportunities arise.

What If You Don’t Work Hard?

I know a few aspiring musicians and other types of artists. So many of them hope to get a lucky break by simply waiting for someone to find them. No one gets lucky sitting home alone every day. If you want opportunities to come up for you, you must take action. You must create opportunities and build relationships.

Taking consistent action creates chances for you to get lucky and skyrocket ahead. And if you don’t get luck, you’ll still be ahead. Consistent work will create a far larger body of work than you might imagine. To stick with our music example, if you made a song a week for 5 years, you’d have hundreds of songs. At that point, the chances are pretty good you’ve grown a following, some connections, and have at least a couple standout tracks. You’ll have built something.

What if you work hard and don’t get lucky?

We all know people that work hard but don’t get lucky though. Why? It comes down to strategy.

We need to keep our eyes peeled for the opportunities that arise from our hard work. For those that work hard, it’s easy to get so caught in work you miss valuable opportunities, even as they’re presented to you. Every once in awhile, take a step back and evaluate what you’re doing from a strategic standpoint. Maybe you’re making a song every week, but is anyone listening? Is your audience growing? If not, it might be time to pivot and change your tactics slightly.

Hard work alone won’t create lucky opportunities. You also have to be working smart. Pay attention to the outcomes of your work and make adjustments as needed.

Get to it!

I won’t lecture on this topic any further. Mainly, I want to point out that calling others lucky is missing a valuable point. For nearly everything, those people put in an extraordinary amount of work, and that’s what led them to their lucky opportunity. You’re fully capable of doing the same thing. Where will you start? 

Exercise:

1. What can you work on to create more opportunities for yourself, what some might call ‘lucky’?

2. What opportunities have you seen lately as a result of your actions? Can you capitalize on any of them?