Luck

This week my wife and I were in Seaside, FL, enjoying fall break with a couple of other families and seven teenage boys.?

When I say enjoy...I was chaperoning seven teenage boys at the beach...so if you know you know.

Then Hurricane Helene decided to make an appearance.

The storm was on a path to hit the town, and just as it was about to make landfall, I had to leave for a conference in Texas.?

Leaving my wife and the boys behind, I felt a deep sense of guilt. (Pro marriage tip: Don't do this!)

I knew they would be okay, but it’s never easy to leave your loved ones in the face of uncertainty.?

My wife is a Louisiana?girl and she was not overly concerned.

My flights to Texas were uneventful, and, as it turned out, the storm’s impact on Seaside was negligible.?

Thankfully, my family and friends made it back to Atlanta safely.

However, on my flight back to?Atlanta the?next day, I read about the devastation that Helene caused across other parts of the South.?

The contrast was stark: We were incredibly "lucky."

This morning I received a picture of a friend's house in Florida.?

It was literally 'gone.' Just the slab remained.?

Luck is an invisible force that plays a crucial role in our lives, often in ways we don't even realize.?

Morgan Housel, in his book The Psychology of Money, offers a great perspective on luck.?

He explains that luck and risk are two sides of the same coin.?

While it’s tempting to attribute our successes solely to our skills or hard work, the reality is that luck plays a far more significant role than we might want to admit.?

The same is true for risk—bad luck can strike anyone, regardless of how prepared or diligent they are.

In this instance, we were fortunate that the storm’s path shifted, sparing my family from its worst effects.?

But this experience serves as a humbling reminder that no amount of planning can fully control the randomness of life.?

We were simply in the right place at the right time—through no effort or foresight of our own.

Housel’s insights on luck remind us to stay humble and grateful.?

Recognize the breaks that have gone your way, and remember that others may not have been as lucky.?

Also...don't leave your family in the path of a hurricane...?