A profound quote by Thomas Jefferson - I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it
There was a time when I thought luck was from winning the lottery or finding money on the ground but the truth is, a lot of the luck we talk about isn’t really as random if we understand it through the right lens. It also kind of has to do with you either getting in the right position or showing up enough that a part of what you're doing finally decides to work out for you.
Luck happens after you’ve done the work. You have the opportunity to meet a lot of people, you have the chance to experience everything possible and you can experience some failures for sure. But the more you are doing something, the more chance you are going to have to become lucky. It almost feels like at least mathematically, once you do enough of something, you have an increasing probability of coming into contact with a good opportunity.
The part that can confuse me though is whether it is really still luck after you’ve been working for it. Do you say that you have gotten lucky or do you say that you’ve gotten the natural result of your effort?
I would say that it may not really matter what we call it.
All I can tell you is that people who are sitting around waiting for a big break without working for it, tend to never get a big break. People who continue to push themselves, even when they’re tired, usually find themselves in more lucky situations. If that is fair or not is another question altogether. But at the end of the day, I believe that the quote is mostly true. You might not be guaranteed luck through doing the work, but it sure does increase your odds.
