Have you ever considered what luck has to do with success in business ? How big a factor luck is in your success? Well listen to this podcast because the answer might surprise you…
So today I wanted to touch base on something that I hear very often when I meet people. And it's not a rant. It's not going to be a rant. It's just something I really want to talk about.
Because what happens is that you when you travel, you meet lot of people and you always have to start over, like “Oh what's your name or where you come from and what do you do?” And stuff like that. And so it happens to me quite often. So right now I haven't been traveling that much lately. Well maybe like 20 times. So maybe that at least once a month I'm going somewhere. It used to be way more before but now a bit more settled.
But you know when you meet people and you say “I work online and that means I can work from anywhere”, people usually tell you “Oh dude you're lucky and you know I suck”, but I do understand where it's coming from. So these people are like “oh man you're so lucky. I envy you”.
And I'm pretty sure it comes from a good place. But the thing is that you know after hearing it more and more, it kind of gets annoying. So I don't say anything obviously because I know people don't mean any harm when they say this but I just wanted to touch base because I mean you guys must be in the same situation as well.
I mean the luck doesn't have anything to do with anything right. If you're an entrepreneur, then you know this. So I wanted to touch base on this so that you know that luck doesn’t have anything to do with your success.
So all the people you see on television, like Mark Cuban, from Shark Tank, for example. He's been bashed by a lot of people who basically told him “dude you are so lucky to sell your company when it was the Internet bubble” and stuff like that.
And what do you mean lucky? He actually had a company. People only see the time people were buying these businesses and stuff. Well you needed to have a business to start with and a business that doesn't happen like this by accident or by luck!
So I remember reading an article about him and he was saying that when he was putting in all-nighters and sleepless nights and when he was reading all the manuals and stuff and when he wasn't going out partying with his buddies and everything.
Nobody said he was lucky. And when he was failing and lot of his businesses went down and stuff, nobody said “Dude you're lucky” right?
But when you make it then all of a sudden you are lucky. And this is something I really want you to understand. If anything, what people call luck is just when preparation meets opportunity. OK. The only thing they see is the tip of the iceberg. They don't see all the preparation and everything that happens when nobody's looking.
What Luck Has To Do With Success in Business
And again, so much information today is available for free. You just have to take the time and you'll learn. Right? So you know when I meet for example bunch of people who use Instagram. They generate traffic and likes and stuff on Instagram and I've studied Instagram a little bit. I wasn't the expert in Instagram but I took some time to study it a little bit.
When you meet these people and you start talking to them then you realize that, oh you know what, you’re going to develop an interest and you're going to have these meaningful conversations that are going to lead to a partnership.
And some people are going to tell you, “Dude, you’re lucky you met this guy at the bar”. No it wasn't luck. If I didn't know anything about Instagram do you think we would have ended up in the partnership? It wouldn't have happened.
So that's my point right?
So I don't want you guys to fall into that trap of having people telling you “oh you know what? The reason you made it is because you were lucky you met that person at the right time” and blah blah blah. There is no right time.
So hopefully you learned something from this. And especially I want I want you to boost your confidence in yourself and I want you to realize your achievements because very often we sell ourselves short and we undermine our own achievements.
But you know all the work and the preparation and everything you have done, like if you spent an hour working on something, then it might actually come in come in handy maybe three years later. Right? And that’s the point. It's not luck. It's just that you prepared for it. Three years ago, you took one hour out of your time to invest in yourself and get more knowledge.
And that will serve you down the road. It's just that sometimes it happens so long afterwards that you just assume it's luck, or it’s fate and stuff. No it's not. You actually prepare for it.
