You have a 1 in 3,000 chance of being struck by lightning in your lifetime and a 1 in 88 quadrillion chance of winning the 1 billion dollar Mega Million/Powerball jackpot. May the odds be ever in your favor? I don’t think I volunteer as tribute.
I was listening to a podcast the other day, which shouldn’t surprise anyone since I listen to about 3-4 of them a day as my job requires me to drive all over the city visiting schools. On this particular episode of the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast, their guest mentioned that despite their hard work, that they were never really lucky in any of their circumstances.
The idea of luck intrigues me, I think about luck as someone who can beat the odds, and if that were the case the luckiest man who ever lived would be Han Solo, how many times in the original trilogy did that guy defy impossibly long odds to escape an asteroid field. In fact he was so good at defying the odds that he didn’t even want to hear the odds.
I think in our culture we have become enamored with the idea of luck and getting a lucky break. When one of our friends or coworkers gets a big break we often assume that it was just luck on their part, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the harder people work, the luckier they get.
When we fall back on the belief that some people just catch lucky breaks which allow them to pull ahead of us, we place ourselves in the victim mentality that makes us feel that our destiny and our future is not in our own hands but in the hands of forces outside of our control. I reject that line of thinking.
I reject that because I believe that I have control of my destiny, that luck is simply the result of opportunities coming my way because of the hard work I put in to create those opportunities.
When I landed my first job it was a student pastor position at a megachurch of over 2000 when I was fresh out of seminary. There is no way I should have been able to get that job with my lack of experience. I believe I had the necessary talent and the skills but not many churches will take a chance on someone like that.
I reject that because I believe that I have control of my destiny, that luck is simply the result of opportunities coming my way because of the hard work I put in to create those opportunities.
Troy – The Compounding Interests
However, it was my hard work that I put in as a volunteer at a previous church and the networking that I had done while I was in seminary that opened the doors for me to “get lucky” and land that role. As I’ve been pursuing financial independence, I’ve worked hard to grow my side hustles and I’ve been able to increase my income 15% in less than 6 months. The growth of my side gig and work to have a system in place, has kept my time commitment to a minimum.
Was I lucky? Yeah, I did have a few lucky breaks that helped me speed up the process but really these lucky breaks came about because I worked hard to put myself in the right place, at the right time, to capture the greatest return on investment.
So here’s my question to you, dear reader, what are you going to do to make sure you get lucky today? It might seem overwhelming to reach some of your goals, but if you break it down everything seems more attainable. Don’t let the enormity of your goals and dreams keep you from working hard to achieve them. Now get out there and work hard to find some luck!
We would love to hear about what you do to increase your luck in the comments below!