An Irish saying: “As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction.” Now, THERE’S a visual!
Some days, I reflect on just how damned lucky I am, and Saint Patrick’s Day is as good a time as any for all of us to pause and reflect on our own luck, just as we reflect on what we’re grateful for at Thanksgiving.
Oddly, the older I get, the more I feel lucky for many of the “bad” things that happened to me over the years, realizing that the bad luck that showed up was, in some dark, karmic way, GOOD luck cloaked in a time-release capsule.
For example, I consider myself extremely fortunate for not having had the ability to finish school and go to college, where I might have learned how to be an employee (a profession) rather than the scrappy, renegade entrepreneur that I am today. At the time, it was a giant embarrassment that I shamefully hid to the best of my ability.
I consider myself fortunate for taking that “lowly” sales job where I was initially introduced to sales training from Zig and, eventually, Tony, who both opened a new world for me. So much so, that that’s why I do what I do today… I remember how impactful an encouraging word was to me back then, and I love doing that for others. But at the time, I was ashamed of being a “salesperson,” so I tried to develop more “professional” skills as a programmer.
I consider myself fortunate for having worked for horrible bosses, so I know at least what not to do.
And to play off Daymond’s Power Of Broke, I am also lucky I started with nothing so that when starting my business, I truly had nothing to lose.
Too many people put emphasis on “luck” as the reason for most people’s success. And while there’s always an element of luck in any successful endeavor, it’s overly simplistic and false to reduce someone’s success down to simple luck.
You’ll hear someone, dripping with envy and disdain, say to a successful person, “Oh, you are so fortunate.” It’s an insult to say that. Of course, anyone achieving anything of significance will feel fortunate, blessed and grateful – but to simply dismiss someone’s success by boiling it down to the fact that they’re lucky is overlooking the years of sacrifice, hard work, preparation and guts it took to do what they did. It’s not only offensive, but also total BS.
Of course, those who are successful know how to improve their “luck.”
Even someone attempting to get lucky with the lottery knows they can increase their chances of winning by consistently buying more tickets.
Salespeople tend to get “luckier” if they talk to more people, do more presentations and implement more follow-up. Poker players increase their “luck” by developing the skill of counting cards or reading the other players – skills they can choose to work on.
In cyber security, you know many of your clients are betting on “luck” to prevent them from getting hacked – and we all know how that will play out. Sure, someone out there will be “lucky” enough to never experience a devastating cyber-attack…but do you want to take that bet when there are ways to greatly reduce the chances and mitigate the losses?
We all know there is a litany of things we can do to improve our “luck.” If you want to be lucky in maintaining good health, then eating clean, exercising, keeping your weight down, spending time outdoors in the sun and getting regular health checks will make you more fortunate.
If you want to succeed in marketing, implementing more campaigns and investing more time will increase your luck as well. Being “more fortunate” is largely a matter of consistently making better choices. Happy Saint Paddy’s Day!
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