“Luck is not an event, but a residue of process.” -MJ Demarco
The truth is, there’s really no such thing as “luck.” There is only an opportunity that is seized by the one who is prepared. In his book The Richest Man in Babylon, George Clason wrote: “Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared.”
Low-level thinking attributes success to “luck,” claiming that winners only won because they were in the right place at the right time.
High-level thinking recognizes the other factors in a victory — the effort, the practice, the preparation.
Knowing this, there are actually ways to create more “luck” with money and opportunities. Here’s how.
“It’s a funny thing — the more I practice, the luckier I get.” -Arnold Palmer
Focus On Learning and Creating, Not Entertainment and Distraction
“My experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know, but because of their insatiable need to know more.” -Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey’s Chocolate
A lot of people focus on others, comparing themselves to more “successful” people. Often, this leads to envy, frustration, and discouragement.
When you compare, you waste precious energy on something you can’t control when you could be spending your energy learning. And there’s a lot you need to learn. Once you commit to learning, you’ll start seeing opportunities many people overlooked.
There’s no fortune without action, and there’s no progress without putting in the work. Everything stems from your effort.
“Luck is just one of the by-products of those who take the most action.” -Grant Cardone
This Is the Greatest Determining Factor of Your Success
I’m not especially talented. There are far better, “luckier” writers out there than me. They also have better college degrees, better connections, better ideas, and probably sexier abs than I do.
But where other writers beat me in talent, I rely on the only big guns I have: my obsessive commitment to taking action, every single day.
See, what I’ve learned is this: consistency beats talent. Consistency beats good intentions. Consistency beats luck. And you want to know the real secret I’ve learned?
Consistency even beats quality.
That’s right. I regularly and consistently outperform others whose work is of much higher quality than mine.
How? Simple: I’m more consistent than they are. Where they garner attention from great product here and there, or get lucky from time to time, I consistently get great engagement from my constant action.
Consistent, disciplined action is the greatest determining factor to your success. That’s great news for you and me — it means that our lack of talent or “luck” can be overcome by the simple act of just doing it, every day.
In his autobiography, Steve Martin (one of the most famous and successful stand-up comedians in history) described his humble beginnings in comedy — a nonsensical magic/comedy act he gave for small families and foot traffic while working at a dusty, second-class amusement park.
“I was not naturally talented,” he wrote, “though working around that minor detail made me inventive.” He spent a decade learning his craft, practicing his routine literally thousands of times, up to 4 times a day at the amusement park for years.
“I kept scrupulous records of how each gag played after my local shows. ‘Excellent!’ or ‘Big Laugh’ or ‘Quiet,’ I would write down; then I would summarize how I could make the show better next time.” he wrote.
After years of practicing, tweaking, re-doing, and practicing, he finally began to make enormous strides very quickly. In a few short years, he became the most dominant and well-known comedian in the world.
“Perseverance is a great substitute for talent,” Martin wrote.
Consistency and discipline are the greatest determining factors of your success.
How consistent and disciplined you are is up to you.
In Conclusion
Don’t worry about luck. It’ll come to you when you put your head down and work.
When you work a lot, for a long time, despite failing over and over, you’ll start to notice something funny about “successful” people: at the end of the day, they’re just the ones that worked the hardest.
It’s not about luck. It’s not about hitting the jackpot. You get what you want by putting in the work, every single day. The truth is, it’s easier to make excuses than make progress.
That’s why you need to be the one person who decided to work when everyone else was comparing themselves to someone else.