After a long, refreshing four-week vacation, I am back in action!
I did my best to fully unplug from all my hobbies, side hustles, and worries.
And honestly, I just feel incredibly lucky to even be in a position to take a four-week vacation.
It got me thinking about luck….How did I get so lucky?
Do we make our own luck?
Do we simply just “get lucky?”
Or are we, in a sense, born with it?
Creating Your Own Luck
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
— Thomas Jefferson
I think there is a big truth to the idea that you make your own luck.
Tennessee Williams once said, “Luck is believing you’re lucky.”
Sometimes all you need is the right attitude, and you’ll begin to see even some hardships as opportunities.
But does hard work lead to luck? Yes, it can! The more you work on something and the more people you work with, the more surface area you create for luck.
Success breeds more success.
That is why you can bet that even if Elon Musk failed today, success would still find him — because he’s built a track record that attracts opportunities.
I call this kind of luck created luck.
You can create luck by:
- Having the right kind of attitude (aka believing you’re lucky)
- Working hard and seizing opportunities as they arise
- Being open to new ideas, people, and opportunities.
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
— Seneca
So created luck is essentially the combination of various factors from attitude to effort, by having grit and persistence, and then finally recognizing the luck when it comes your way.
Inherent Luck
But then there is also another kind of luck that I like to call Inherent Luck.
This is the type of luck that you can’t do anything about.
It’s your:
- Genetics: being born with an athletic build, or with a stellar mind for mathematics,
- Location: being born in a stable country like the US, UK, Australia, France, Canada, etc.
- Socioeconomics: being born into an upper middle class family
You can’t control any of these things at first. But you can overcome them to your advantage.
I can’t say that I created all of my own luck — because the fact is that I was born with a ton of inherent luck.
I’d probably even argue that your inherent luck is more important than your created luck.
Yes, you could have terrible inherent luck and overcome it all, becoming quite lucky. Many do.
But most of us who “create our own” luck do so because of the massive amount of inherent luck we already have had in our lives.
In fact, so much so that our luck was created for us the moment we were born.
That is inherent luck!
Right Time, Right Place Luck
Finally, though, there is Timing Luck.
This luck is a combination of created and inherent luck.
But sometimes it just happens…
You are simply in the right place at the right time!
Sure, I worked hard to create opportunities — but I also sold two companies simply thanks to being in the right place at the right time… or knowing the right person at the right moment.
That. Is. It.
Certainly, lottery winners can appreciate timing luck as well.
That is the purest form of luck. You simply bought a ticket in the right place, at the right time.
Luck, in All Its Forms
No matter the type of luck, it is only as good as your attitude and willingness to embrace the opportunities that come your way.
They say that wheelchair bound quadriplegics are just as happy as lottery winners one year later.
Because luck and life are more than just “getting lucky.”
It’s embracing that luck. It’s about finding happiness even in the unlucky times.
And that brings us back to my vacation. I planned it. I created it. And in some ways, I lucked into it, too.
Without my inherent luck, I would never have had that opportunity….but I also wouldn’t have had it without my created luck and my timing luck, too.
I guess that I really am just damn lucky!