Lucky Duck
Success is comprised of many things; including but not limited to courage, talent, intelligence, resilience, perseverance and luck. And like it or not, LUCK has way more to do with success than we tend to give it credit for. There are braver, more talented, smarter and even harder-working people out there, RIGHT NOW, who are not doing as well as others who were simply in the right place at the right time.
“The right place at the right time” could mean many things: in the context of career/financial luck – a programmer in Silicon Valley, near the end of the 20th century. A real estate investor in Vancouver, at the beginning of the 21st century. Or, the first gold prospectors to arrive at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers at the end of the 19th century.
That being said, Warren Buffett breaks Luck down even further: “I’ve had it so good in this world, you know. The odds were fifty-to-one against me being born in the United States in 1930.” He says he won the Ovarian Lottery “the day I emerged from the womb by being in the United States instead of in some other country where my chances would have been way different.”
Think about it. Imagine two identical twins, born anywhere, and with the same dominant “entrepreneurial gene.” One is sent to Calgary and becomes an oil tycoon; the other is raised in Marrakesh and winds up running the biggest stand at the Bazaar. Which do you choose?
Or, one twin becomes the top Realtor in Las Vegas; the other, #1 in Dublin. Both cities suffered housing-market crashes in 2008-2010. Which twin fared better…or worse?
More food for thought: what if a person who was predisposed to become one of the greatest geneticists of all time, was actually born too early? Lived out a full life and died in a jungle somewhere 50 years ago?
I guess there are multiple layers of luck in our lives. First, call it “Intrinsic Luck” in having been born who we are, when we were, and where – indeed, for having been born at all. Also, the “Circumstantial Luck” arising from choosing the right career, opportunity or investment - and the multitude of decisions following.
To this I say, regular gratitude is due for the luck we began with. And that healthy dash of situational luck is a key ingredient in the recipe for entrepreneurial success; but in the absence of the other ingredients – especially hard work – luck is as useless to the palate as water. Being in the right place at the right time begins with thinking, deciding, taking action and persisting.
Keep on keeping on; in doing so, you are “standing in luck’s way.” And if things really click, the feast will taste so much sweeter.