Are You Lucky?
When people start working with PYP we have increasingly learned to ask this question. Are you lucky? It has started to tell us a great deal about how people see the world and how we need to pitch our approach to enable them to achieve their goals.
So an interesting few questions to ask yourself as part of your development process:
If you start to reflect on the good things that have happened to you and how these have come about then you can really determine if you are a lucky person.
The definition of lucky is someone who has good fortune, something that brings good fortune, or something that results from good fortune and chance. A lottery winner is an obvious example of someone who would generally be described as lucky. But don’t forget you have to buy a ticket to win, as they say “you have to be in it to win it!”
Is a lottery winner, therefore lucky or have they just put themselves in the best position for good fortune to find them? Yes the odds are against them but not to the same extent as someone who didn’t buy a ticket in the first place!
At PYP we believe life can always go two ways it is down to you to choose how you look at things and as a result how you behave to make things happen in a positive way.
French Military Leader, Napoleon, is believed to have famously replied, when being criticised for winning battles simply because of luck, “I'd rather have lucky generals than good ones.”
Gary Player, winner of nine golf Majors, famously said “the more I practice, the luckier I am” and motivational speaker Brian Tracy said “I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.”
These latter statements and the implications in the first, highlight that luck doesn’t come by accident. You make your own luck whether it is buying a lottery ticket, naval battle craft experience, sheer hard work or from our perspective each and every interaction with others.
At PYP we believe it is largely your attitude towards life which makes you lucky or unlucky. If you are the person who gets up every day and looks at the positive aspects of what is going on in your life and the good things you have as part of it then you will consider yourself lucky.
As a nation, the Irish, are synonymous with luck and good fortune and there is an Irish saying which “if you’re lucky enough to be Irish, then you’re lucky enough!
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It is sadly the case that many people don't have this attitude so simply having this approach and attitude, in itself, could make you seen as lucky.
If you feel you are lucky then you are likely to be optimistic in your outlook to life. You will overcome obstacles and setbacks when they present themselves and work round them to achieve your objectives. You will be resilient and have the perseverance to achieve the positive results you need to continue to move forward and be successful.
Another reason we ask this question at PYP is that if you feel you are lucky then it is likely the case that you see opportunities, are open to them, realise that good things can happen and therefore go some way to making them happen. It is your skill, experience and expertise which enable you to, in effect, to make your own luck!
By way of example, when PYP was starting out, we were looking for an office we were working out of each other’s houses, sitting at kitchen tables or even standing at the ironing board! We happened to share this challenge with a client over a coffee one day, their response, “I have an empty office you can use”. They had acquired an office but had yet to acquire all the people to go in it! They then went on to say “it would actually do me a favour to have people going in and out every day to make it look occupied!”
Is that luck or is it the fact that we were prepared to admit our business vulnerability. Had we built the reputation that we were trust worthy enough to justify having access to the office? Had we developed a relationship that meant they were going to be a client for the long term? We may never know, but an opportunity presented itself as a result of our interaction and we will be forever grateful.
We sometimes also have to highlight to people that nobody is simply going to knock on your door, call you up or send you an email out of the blue to offer you your dream job. Nobody is that lucky! You have to go out there and get it! It is very, very rare that good fortune just lands in your lap!
I was talking to an acquaintance only the other day who had, with a group of friends, arrived somewhere by accident as a result of an issue with his Sat Nav, and as a result, had missed what they had planned for the day. He then went on to describe being so lucky that the people at the place where his group had arrived really took too them and welcomed them to join them in their activities that day. He then went on to describe what a great time they had all had and how lucky they had been.
Interestingly, he didn’t talk at all about what he had missed out on, despite having had it planned and looked forward too, only about how lucky he was to have received the opportunity he did. Until I pointed out, it had never crossed his mind, that out of an error, came opportunity and that he and his friends had made their own luck by approaching that situation how they did, communicating in a way that made them welcome and recognising the good fortune they had received. They had made their own luck.
At PYP we know we are lucky, we get to be around and work with great people every day, helping them realise their ambitions, we get the opportunity to write this article and do something we enjoy.
Who wouldn’t feel lucky if they could do that!
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