What does Good Luck mean to you?

(Originally published in the IMPACT 13th Anniversary Issue on Good Luck, a collection of notes from over 200 people in the Indian Marketing, Media & Advertisement industry on what luck means to them)

The dictionary meaning of ‘Luck’ is “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” By that definition, I do not believe in ‘luck.’ Because I believe everything is a consequence of our choices and actions. Irrespective of the consequence being positive or negative, one should come to terms with that and move on.

Yes, there could be times when many external factors come together in a rather magical way to make things happen for us. And then we might say that there is a time and place for everything to happen. I don’t know whether to call it luck.

I feel the time and place angle has perhaps worked well for me. First 3–4 years of my career was scattered in multiple companies in the areas of IT and programming. The next 7 years was in marketing & sales, but intensely focused on people, in an organization with a larger-than-life mission and huge challenges, but that offered immense personal learning and growth. In the early 2000s, when I moved to a digital agency that brought together marketing & technology, it was simply being at the right time at the right place.

All my decisions on career and life, despite the many challenges, have only enhanced me as a person. Unconventional career paths, switching fields, going literally bankrupt and recovering from it—everything that happened in my life turned out to be good. If we want to call ‘luck’ as a word that describes “all that happened was for good,” then I am lucky.

 My view on the number 13 is same as my view on all other numbers. I don’t believe in any negative connotations associated with it.