LUCK DOESN'T MATTER

Exhibit A: While visiting a temple in Thailand, a monk called me over. I sat down in front of him indian style and he grabbed a wooden stick with leather flaps affixed to it, dipped it in water, and shook the apparatus, flinging water droplets on me while saying, "good luck good luck good luck."

Exhibit B: In Japan, most temples have paper fortunes you can purchase for 100 yen. If your fortune is bad, you're supposed to tie it off onto a post to nullify the bad fortune. If it's good, you keep it.

Exhibit C: To avoid bad luck, superstitious people throw salt over their left shoulder and don't walk under ladders. Some believe it's bad luck to see a black cat.

Exhibit D:One of the most common parting phrases is, "good luck."

Luck is well-ingrained in world cultures, religions, and practices. People have varying ideas of the role luck plays into an average person's life. Here's what I think: if you play the luck game, you will lose.

Fortune Favors the Bold

This well-known latin proverb essentially says that luck as we know it is a sham. If the actions we take impact our luck, then is it luck at all? Take a look at the definition of luck (bold emphasis added).

Luck (n): "Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions."

By definition, luck is outside of our control. But if you subscribe to the notion that fortune/luck favors the bold, then it isn't actually a function of luck, but a direct result of the actions we take. That's basic cause and effect.

Why You Can't Believe in Luck

Luck is a damaging concept to believe in because it steals away our sense of control. If our fate is but a roll of the dice, then what's the point in trying? You can "try" to roll a three, but any effort to do so will be in vain. This is why those who believe in luck are more prone to...

1. Engage in excessive unwise gambling. Gambling is not a game of really a game of luck, or else the casinos wouldn't make money every night. The house edge is a concrete advantage over players. It's like the opposite of gaining interest in a bank account. The longer you play, the more you'll lose money to the house edge. People get lucky gambling sometimes (like me in Japan), but it's folly to see it as a potential windfall when it's an almost certain loss of money.
2. Be passive. If you believe luck may (or may not) bring you what you want, you have less reason to get up and go get it yourself. It's the difference between waiting to be talked to versus being the one to initiate. Initiators create their own opportunities.
3. See the world as unfair. I used to think the world was unfair. I was a new college graduate full of potential, and yet, the world hadn't presented me with a job on a golden platter. I even tried to get a job and still couldn't. When I look back at that time in my life, I realize that my perspective may have contributed to my problem. I saw it as a luck-based venture, rather than deeply strategizing about how to differentiate myself from the other candidates.
4. Blend in. As selfish as it may sound, we all want to stand out. Who doesn't want to be noticed by men or women? Who doesn't want to be presented with an awards or recognition for the good things they do? Who doesn't want to be appreciated for their talents? We all desire to be seen for the unique people we are, but if you believe in luck, then you will hope for your talents to be discovered. That's not going to work.

I used to think that those who stood out did so because they got lucky. Good genetics. A knack for piano. So tall that he's an automatic basketball star. A lucky book deal with a major publisher.

It's not like that though. There are a lot of tall people who haven't even played basketball, and there are short people who are tremendous basketball players. The best natural pianist in the world probably hasn't ever tried playing piano. Most people who want to write books never do. Of the few who actually write a book, many don't try to publish or self-publish it. Of those who do that, many give up after the first few rejections.

I know I've mentioned it before in other articles, but JK Rowling's 12 rejections before finding a publisher for the best-selling book series of all time (Harry Potter) is a perfect example of the problem with luck. She's the world's first billionaire author, but would anyone dare call her "lucky?" She was rejected 12 times for one of the most beloved books of all time! It seems awfully unlucky for her to find 12 publishers in a row who didn't like Harry Potter or see its mainstream potential. But it's not about whether she was lucky or unlucky, because luck doesn't matter!

Luck Doesn't Matter

For argument's sake, let's say you're very unlucky. What do you do then? Give up? Throw salt over your shoulder? These aren't going to tips the scales in your favor. The best answer is to get as far as you can despite your bad luck.

Okay, now let's say you're very lucky. You've already won the lottery. What do you do then? Sit down and wait for more good things to happen? You'd miss a lot of opportunities doing that. Even if you're lucky, you won't meet new people in your home. Even if you're lucky, you can develop health problems from your lifestyle. The best response to extraordinary good luck is to continue living your life, which gives you more opportunities to benefit from your good luck.

The logical next step for both good luck and bad luck is the same. It's best to continue forward regardless of your luck, which is one reason why luck doesn't matter. The second reason?

Luck is Unpredictable

Some people will receive an unlikely fortune or blessing in their lifetime, and they are lucky, but the problem with luck is that you can't strategize for it. You can't strategize to win the lottery.

Even if you wish upon a shooting star, your wish is not guaranteed. Even if you throw salt over a black cat's left paw while climbing a ladder, your luck is not guaranteed to change. Luck is unpredictable, like our emotions.

I've talked in the past about the folly of relying on motivation to reach your goals, and the same is true for luck. If you require luck to reach any goal, you automatically have a slim chance of reaching that goal. Fortune favors the bold because "good luck" is not the result of some mystical power, it's the result of giving yourself as many chances as it takes.

Nobody in the history of the world has gotten anything as a result of "pure luck." If you find a $20 bill on the ground, is it because you are lucky, or is it because you were walking by a spot where there was a $20 bill on the ground? We call it luck, but if you had stayed home that day rubbing a rabbit's foot (or whatever other means) to theoretically increase your luck, you wouldn't have been in position to see the $20.

Life is about controlling what you can control. Fortune and misfortune are a part of life, and they vary, but we can't control them. Some may disagree with that, but even in the case that you were able to influence your luck, you'd be better off actively pursuing your dreams rather than hoping for luck to make them come true.

Don't use bad luck as an excuse for anything. Take full responsibility for everything in your life, because that gives you the most power to change and improve your situation. The moment you point to an external force as what's preventing you from moving forward, you have conceded your power to it.

I'm not suggesting the negatively-charged mindset of "It's all my fault" as much as I'm recommending the mindset of "I am wholly responsible for everything in my life."

Even if something truly isn't your fault (maybe it is "bad luck" or another person's error), you can still take responsibility for it to better control the ensuing result.For example, if someone else spills a drink, you can assume responsibility for it andtake control of the situation by cleaning it up with paper towels. The fortunes and misfortunes of our lives up to this point may have not been completely up to us, but we can still take responsibility for them. Let's be assertive about what happens next.

Good luck!

Luck doesn't matter because it's secondary to action.

Cheers,

Stephen Guise