Are Luck and Success Linked?
By: Oliver Thomas Spedding
Tags: Luck, Wealth, Health, Retirement, Success

Luck plays a huge part in everybody’s lives.

By

Oliver T. Spedding

Countless books have been written about how to succeed, most of them focusing on the financial aspect.

But financial success is only one of the many types of success that people strive for.

Unfortunately only some of the formulae for financial success apply to the other types of success.

There is one ingredient for success that applies to all types of success, and that is luck.

INHERITANCES AND PRIZES

The most obvious types of luck in the financial sphere are inheritances and winning competitions such as the lottery.

But these types of luck don’t guarantee success.

Time and again we hear of people inheriting flourishing businesses or wealthy estates, or winning large prizes, but, due to inexperience, greed or indolence, these businesses eventually fail or the winnings are lost, leaving the beneficiaries destitute.

What we can learn from the above is that it’s not the inheritance or prize that count, but what is done with them.

If they are simply neglected or left to continue as they were received, the chances are that they will eventually fail or waste away.

Inheritances and prize winnings are a responsibility and need to be treated as such.

Their potential needs to be nurtured and developed so as to ensure the success that they represent.

The beneficiaries who are inexperienced or who have no wish to be involved, need to acquire the needed expertise themselves or hire people who have the knowledge, to grow the legacy.

There is another type of luck that is far more important and accessible than financial luck, and that is personal skill.

This type of luck, if recognized and nurtured, can lead, not just to financial success, but to many other benefits.

But, just like financial luck, the inheritance of a personal skill needs to be developed and its potential exploited.

A typical example of this type of luck would be someone who discovers that he or she excels at a certain sport.

If this ability is exploited by concentrated practice and dedication, success in many spheres can be attained.

SKILL AND PERSEVERANCE

A perfect example of the exploitation of a personal skill is the legendary golfer, Tiger Woods.

Tiger’s father recognized that his young son had a natural bent for the game of golf and nurtured this skill from when Tiger was only a few years old.

What’s also important though, is that Tiger himself, was lucky to also possess an inbred dedication and discipline that drove him to seek success.

So Tiger Woods actually had three strokes of luck; the natural ability to play the game of golf, a father who recognized his son’s ability and encouraged him to develop this skill, and the strength of character and self-belief to persevere and grow his skill.

Obviously, Tiger Woods isn’t the only great sports person who was lucky enough to be born with a skill that he could develop.

There are countless sportsmen and sportswomen who have achieved huge success because they discovered that they possessed a certain skill and exploited it through perseverance and dedication; Jack Nicklaus, Serena Williams, Chris Evert, Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King and Roger Federer.

But personal skills aren’t confined to sport; financial skills, intellectual skills, interpersonal skills and entrepreneurial skills are just as numerous.

People like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Geoff Bizos, in finance and business, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, Wolfgang Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso in music and entertainment, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenna in fashion and promotion, Michael Angelo, Rembrandt van Rijn and Picasso in art, and Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, J. K. Rowling, Danielle Steele, Stephen King and Emily Bronte in literature.

There are countless people who have been lucky enough to be born with a personal skill but who haven’t recognized it or haven’t developed it.

Being born with a natural ability to do something doesn’t guarantee success though.

Most times that ability needs to be advertised and exposed to people who can help to develop it.

There are myriad examples of people’s personal skills being recognised by others and, as a result, exposed and exploited in a way that led to success.

To increase their chances of success once they established what their personal skill is, successful people practice diligently to improve their skill and build up their self-confidence and then promote themselves wherever they can, especially to those involved in the field that their skill falls within.

EXPLOIT IT

Luck plays a huge part in everybody’s lives, from small everyday experiences to life-changing events, and we need to exploit this providence whenever and wherever we can.

We should never look at luck as something material, but rather recognize that luck takes an enormous variety of guises, all of which can be nurtured and exploited to our advantage.

Take a little time to stand back and look at yourself and try to establish what luck has been bestowed on you. It could change your life dramatically.

Photo acknowledgements

Photo 1 — Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Photo 2 — Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Photo 3 — Photo by Shane Stillings on Unsplash

Photo 4 — Photo by Yan Ming on Unsplash