W.I.N. Wednesday: They got lucky.
“They got lucky.” I hear that a lot from people talking about other people’s success. For some reason they want to attribute luck as the major factor for someone else’s success in business, in sports, in their careers and in life.
Does luck play a factor? Sure. You can never take luck out of the equation. When you study those people whose success is sustained over time, luck played a very small role in their success.
What you don’t see is all the work that went into creating their “lucky break”. You usually only see the end result of all their efforts - the success.
When you go to see live theatre, a concert or a movie what you see is the end product of a lot of hard work. Each of the actors or musicians has committed a significant part of their life practicing their craft so they had the opportunity just to audition. Once selected for that role they then spent hundreds of hours practicing and rehearsing for that performance. The same is true for the writers and composers, the choreographers, the directors and the people who do the sound and lighting.
When you watch a professional sporting event you are seeing the end product of thousands of hours of purposeful and dedicated practice that was required just to create the opportunity for the athletes and coaches to make that team and then the countless hours of physical and mental practice every day to hone their craft and prepare them for that game. If you are watching it on TV you are also missing all the work that went in to preparing for the broadcast by the play by play announcer, analyst, sideline reporter and production crew. You are also not seeing all the work by the production crew during the event to bring you a high quality production.
In his book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones James Clear says, "Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.”
When my mom was still alive and people used to tell her how lucky my two sons were to have successful businesses in a tough market and down economy she used to say, “You are right and the harder they work the luckier they get.”
What’s Important Now? Study those you admire and learn about their struggles, failures, processes, strategies, mindset, habits and work ethic. Then, do the work.
Take care.
Brian Willis
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com
Maximizing human potential through Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?
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