Making your own luck

There’s a quote that I love, no clue who said it or the exact phrasing, but essentially its:

Funny thing, the harder I worked and the more I prepare, the luckier I get.

I really don’t too often believe in “bad luck”. Only in severe circumstances, like this. But for the most part I think of bad luck breaking down in two ways. First, often times bad luck is simply a negative way to perceive a situation (or in other words, BE POSITIVE!). And second, if you do the right things, stay focused and positive, bad luck should be overcome by the other things you’re doing.

In terms of reseting expectations when bad luck occurs, it’s really not that hard. A few weeks back we were meant to be on a week vacation in the gulf. Then mother nature took a dump on those plans and dropped a tropical storm on the island in Florida we were staying at and we had to evacuate. So what did we do? We spent three days in the pouring rain two hours away in Tallahassee. On the surface, not very ideal. However, my wife and I decided to make the most of it. The kids loved the hotel, we played games, took them to Chucky Cheese’s…and we basically convinced them that this was even better than what our original trip would have been. And you know what, it worked.

And you have to be making your own luck. Again, the harder you work at something and the more time you prepare, the luckier you’ll get. It’s always happened to me in my life. When “bad luck” occurs with the things I don’t pay as much attention to, it hurts. Because there’s no back up plan. There’s nothing right around the corner that’s going to be awesome.

3 Comments

  1. Del Ross on July 13, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Thanks for this, Jeff.

    Related quotes – “Fortune favors the bold” and “Fortune favors the prepared mind.”  (not incompatible…



  2. Jeremy Brady on July 13, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    You and Han Solo.



  3. […] Or in other words, we’re going to make our own luck. […]



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