Luck of the Irish
My mother loved St. Patrick’s Day. It was her favorite holiday. Why? Because it was a day to celebrate our heritage, the heritage of a resilient people.
Sure, the Irish often get credit for being lucky, but luck – whether or not you’re Irish (and who isn’t Irish on St. Patrick’s Day?) – comes from how you react to what happens to you. When you consider the history of Ireland, it’s tough to say that the Irish were alway lucky. But the image persists, likely because of how they responded.
So much of what we consider luck boils down to 2 things:
- Goals. You’ve got to know where you want to end up. The most successful people, the ones we all consider lucky, are those who get to do what they love. What could be more lucky than that? Do you know what that is for you? Where you plan to be down the road? History is made by those who choose to make it.
- Persistence. As one of my greatest teachers used to say, “90% of life is just showing up.” Once you know your goals, you’ve got to work towards them every day, without fail. It isn’t always easy. But giving up guarantees failure. At least when you work at it, you have a shot at getting lucky.
No one in business is just “lucky.” Sure, trying to survive – let alone thrive – in tough economic conditions isn’t as easy as it was when times were good. And you certainly can’t control everything that happens to you along the way. So, I guess you could consider what’s going on now bad luck. But, you can always control how you react to it and whether you choose to keep trying to accomplish your goals. The luckiest people in the world tend to be those who don’t give up on their goals. Or on themselves.
Do you think you’re lucky? Have you found a way to succeed in this market? Tell us about it in the comments.
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Image credit: cygnus921 via Flickr using Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
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Let me introduce you to my high school principal, Fr. Edwin. Fr. Ed, really. He is a tough, scrappy little guy. 5-foot-nine. Maybe 160 pounds soaking wet. Running a Catholic school in what was once the toughest part of Newark, NJ. It’s still a part of town, sadly, where far too many young people die from violence. But Newark is making a comeback. Slowly. But surely. Crime rates have fallen. And – of all things – hockey has a home there now.
Why?
Because of people like Fr. Ed and the work he does. He – and others like him in the city – work damned hard, every day, to improve the lives of those around them.
His secret?
Show up.
Every day.
We never had snow days in high school. Never. Not once. Why? Because showing up matters.
Woody Allen is credited with the joke, “90% of life is just showing up.” But Fr. Ed was who told me first. And showed me. Every day. So much of life is just showing up.
Last week, we talked about how you can get lucky. And, really, so much of it is just putting in the work.
That doesn’t guarantee success – that’s where the other 10% comes in. But success mostly comes from putting in the time, day after day after day. You want to find smart ways to do it a la Tim Ferriss. But a willingness to work hard and smart will get you where you want to go. Want another example? Look at how Jon Stewart runs the Daily Show.
The key is, it doesn’t matter whether your goal is to grow your business, make people laugh or shape the lives of others, showing up matters.
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Seth Godin responds to a review of his book “The Dip”
, with a thoughtful essay on the value of luck in business success. Seth brings it home with:
I’ve been astonishingly lucky with many elements of my career. Mostly because solid singles turned into doubles or the occasional homer. I figure most of the failures are my fault and many of the successes were really good breaks. But I can’t imagine how lonely and depressing it would be to view myself as nothing but a pinball, batted around by forces over which I have no influence.
Truer words were never spoken. I think of myself as the luckiest son-of-a-gun that ever lived. My family is wonderful, my health great, my career thriving. I get to do what I love every day. Sure, sometimes bad things happen. You can’t always control the things that happen to you. But letting things that happen dictate how you live your life, letting them control your actions because you feel you’ve got no control? Now that’s real misfortune.
You can buy “The Dip” from Amazon.com here. Or get the Kindle version.
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