How many times in your career have you heard people described as being lucky? Probably many. Probably today.
“What the heck is this thing called luck?”
At one moment, what appears to be bad luck suddenly becomes good, or good luck becomes bad. Could luck be just a word we use to describe success or failure when there’s no other explanation? Can we control luck? Not really . . . but we can sure make excuses for it, can’t we?
Getting Lucky
People can come up with all kinds of excuses for things that happen or not. The book, The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz, says that you can “conquer luck “excusitis” in two ways:
1. Accept the law of cause and effect.
Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking preceded his good fortune. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “bad luck.” Look, and you’ll discover certain specific reasons. Mr. Success receives a setback; he learns and profits. But when Mr. Mediocre loses, he fails to learn.
2. Don’t be a wishful thinker.
Don’t waste your mental muscles dreaming of an effortless way to win success. We don’t become successful simply through luck. Success comes from doing those things and mastering those principles that produce success.
Don’t count on luck for promotions, victories, the good things in life.
Luck simply isn’t designed to deliver these good things. Instead, just concentrate on developing those qualities in yourself that will make you a winner.”
Smart leaders will nurture opportunities. They won’t just simply wait for chance or “luck” to come their way – they’d be waiting a long time. They’ll position themselves to take advantage of situations they create themselves.
This is what’s called:
“being in the know”
“taking advantage of connections”
“being in the right place at the right time”
Whatever you want to call it, it’s not luck. It’s more likely what Stuart Basefsky refers to as “enhancing serendipity”.
Many successful leaders in sports have discussed how luck affects success. But renowned Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi wrote that he never talked about luck with his players, he talked about preparation.
He said that, “Luck doesn’t favor the lucky, it favors the prepared, and the difference between success and failure is player control.”
Lombardi’s statement, backed up by his outstanding record of success, indicates that preparation and control are major contributors to outcomes that appear to be the result of “luck.” Preparation and control – write it down and refer to it constantly.
Cause and Effect
There is cause for everything. Nothing happens without it. Things don’t just happen out of the blue. The weather today is not accidental. It’s not luck that it’s a beautiful warm sunny day (well it was when I wrote this anyway). It’s the result of specific causes. You don’t get to leadership positions, in any business, by luck. You get there through superior attitudes and using good sense and hard work. Is it starting to make sense?
Leadership is not luck – it is, my friends, a discipline. What some consider luck just boil down to traits.
“Lucky” leaders:
- Are always positive minded – they find the reasons why something CAN be done, not why it can’t
- Do more than the necessary; they exceed expectations
- Are self-motivated
- Take responsibility
- Take ownership of problems and opportunities
- Think excuses are simply “REASONS for failure“
- Volunteer for tough jobs
- Develop high goals
- Expect to achieve high targets
- Meet and beat schedule deadlines
- Like tough challenges
- Take pride in performance
- Don’t fear failure
- Are persistent
- Welcome change.
“Luck” is the result of making excuses. Great leaders don’t rely on luck to make things happen, they MAKE things happen.
So what are you doing today to “change your luck?” What new habits and disciplines can you interject into your mind-set, schedule, and behaviors that would enhance your “good luck” and diminish your “bad luck”? How can you help others by supporting and encouraging behaviors and disciplines that will increase their good and reduce their bad luck? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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Andy Uskavitch is Leadership Development at Florida Blood Services
He develops and facilitates Leadership, Motivation & Teambuilding Seminars
Email | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | (727) 568-5433
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