Not everyone can be "successful"

Okay, now that is a bold statement, but before you come at me, read this fully.

So I believe luck plays a part in our success, however you define the term “Successful”. There is some part that was not in your control, but you needed that last piece of the jigsaw puzzle to attain the result.

And that is what I call luck. There might be a strong argument that luck can be created by doing multiple iterations of one thing, basically mastery but that is not true.

That is called “leverage”. Leverage is when you know your skills so well that a task which used to take you 10 hours now takes 1. Or when the people you thought were out of reach become part of your network, because you worked on yourself and became someone they perceived as valuable enough to accept you as a person in the first place.

Now that I have made my point, let me give you an example.

What is luck? Bill Gates and Kent Evans were best friends and equally smart. They decided to start Microsoft, but Kent died in a mountain accident. Was that luck? Yep.

Another story:

I was in my second semester of my master’s programme at university. One day, a jobs expo was being held in town. I was very tired from working part-time and fasting for Mahashivratri, so I didn’t want to visit town.

But there was free food organised by an Indian food truck on the same day, so I thought, okay, I’ll go, visit the expo, get some contacts, and then enjoy the free food on my way home.

Once I returned, I emailed the HR person, did some follow-ups, and guess what? I got an internship. The part where I went to the food truck and made it to the expo was all luck.

However, getting selected from all those applicants was a leverage I built through my skills.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s another story:

I was looking for a house because my previous landlord told me to vacate. The very next day, I found out I had two viewings lined up because I knew the residents.

That is “leverage”. That is network, that is not “luck”. And securing the cheapest house in the entire country for my room size, that’s partly luck.

Now that we’ve established that luck plays a role in success, does that mean we should stop working towards our goals? Not at all.

Because we still need to develop leverage - whether by networking, mastering a skill, or building a personal brand.

We do our part, and then we let luck do its part. But while doing so, we must not be entitled to the results, thinking, “Oh, I worked hard; give me the results.”

Perhaps you weren’t lucky enough. But if you tried what was in your control, that is crucial, nothing else.

I saw the Northern Lights three times without going to Norway.

Was I lucky, or was it my leverage?

Hit reply, and we can debate about it.

Ciao!

See you next week.

Hopefully, you’ll see more of me now :)