Luck. Luck is an interesting concept to contemplate. Why do we have it? Why does it seem to follow some people around more than others? Is there a way to gain more good luck than bad? Is luck the only reason why some people are successful and others are not? These are all very interesting questions that I believe many have pondered throughout time.
To start shedding some light on these questions let’s consider an example of a well-known successful person. Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. He won five NBA MVP awards, six NBA Championships, and led the league in scoring for ten years. Looking at his career we could say he was lucky. After all, he had great teammates, played college ball at a legendary program, and obviously was a gifted athlete. Not everyone is so lucky and these are a few simple examples of some good luck Jordan experienced in his life. Taking these things into consideration at simply face value, perhaps we could conclude Jordan’s achievements were mostly lucky.
On the other hand, how many basketball players are gifted athletes, have played with great teammates, and were a part of a legendary college basketball program? How many people have had the same good luck it seems Jordan experienced? Throughout history, though not tons, quite a few people have had similar luck. Yet, none seem to measure up or match Jordan’s accomplishments. Again, the list of gifted athletes that played college ball at an amazing program and later had wonderful teammates in the NBA is more than a select few yet most come nowhere near Jordan’s illustrious career. Thus, looking at history it seems many people had similar luck yet did not have the same results. Why? Perhaps luck isn’t the reason for Jordan’s success after all.
The fact is, all of us have bad and good luck in life. Luck is just a part of life and many times we will have periods of more bad luck and other times more good luck. Luck will happen and is mostly out of our control however how we react to our bad luck and good luck is completely up to us. We are in complete control of this. Going back to our example, imagine if Jordan had become complacent because of his good luck. Perhaps he could have said, look I did well in college, I made it to the NBA and have good teammates, I may as well relax a little bit and enjoy my good luck. If Jordan had done this, how different would have been his results? Thus, we certainly can’t control truly “luck events” in life but we can choose how we respond to them.
At times it may appear to us that others are just luckier in life. Though I agree luck is not perfectly distributed evenly, I have found that in almost every instance people who have similar luck in life do not have similar results. Those who are most successful seem to take full advantage of both good and bad luck while others do not. Thus again, luck itself does not make the difference in results but rather how we handle and react to our luck.
Finally, some extra bad luck in life is not always a bad thing. Many of those in life who have achieved the greatest results have had their fair share of some really bad luck. In fact overcoming bad luck, rather than good luck, most often helps us to achieve our greatest results.
In the end, I believe luck has very little to do with our success in life. We all have it both good and bad. Rather how we utilize our luck to our advantage is what I believe makes all the difference.
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