Luck, Preparation and Opportunity

One of those hokey inspirational sayings that has always stuck with me is that Luck is when Preparation meets Opportunity. I guess it has always stuck with me because I think for the most part it is true. So often, what appears to be luck is really someone being able to take advantage of an opportunity because he/she has prepared for it in case the chance ever arises. Even if that preparation only involves thinking, it is still preparation. Someone who considers a possibilty and thinks about what he or she might do in the event the opportunity ever arises is ready to take advantage of the opportunity when it does come. Outsiders who haven't seen the thinking may only recognize it as luck.

There are genuinely lucky random things, such as having a lottery ticket drawn, and I don't consider buying a ticket to be preparation. However, what the person then does with the money fits into this. The money gives him/her the opportunity to do things he/she might otherwise not have had the chance to do. If that person has thought about it (preparation), he/she probably won't be in one of those horror stories we occasionally hear, a lottery winner who is bankrupt a few years later.

At work, I used to have an 'idea folder', scribblings of ideas I hoped to be able to do someday though at the time, they seemed unrealistic as there weren't the resources or the technology or something to actualize them. Then when I heard of of funding or a technical development or a project someone else had going that seemed to fit, I was able to respond. Some of those ideas are still in the 'idea folder', but it is surprising how many of them came to fruition even though at the time they were simply 'someday it would be nice' ideas. Someone once remarked to my boss that I was lucky, that I had fallen into a good thing in my job. Her response was to the effect that No, I had made the good thing. Certainly a large part of that was preparation, being able to take advantage of opportunities when they came along.

That's why I maintain a healthy dose of scepticism when someone seems to be lucky. I usually ask what they might have done in preparation.

-And none of this discounts positive thinking, the Law Of Attraction. That might well be the most important aspect of preparation.