Do you consider yourself a lucky person? An article in the New York Times this weekend cited a very successful author saying he never would have made it without a lot of luck. For example, some guy sitting next to him on a plane happened to know a good literary agent… bam, luck. It made me think.
I shouldn’t be so vain as to think all of the good things in my life are the result of hard work and talent alone. It would be self-serving, gratifying and delicious to give myself the credit… but it would also be a lie. So I began to remember my ‘lucky’ moments:
I happened to apply for a job two weeks before the woman occupying it left for a new job. A young talent agent happened to be passing through my market (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania) when he caught my terrible live shot on TV and figured he’d give me a chance anyway. Someone happened to mention my name in a meeting when an opening came up at WCCO Radio. Lucky, lucky, lucky.
Call it what you will, luck, coincidence, the universe, G-d. (I call it G-d.) It is humbling to look back and see that along with the hard work and a little bit of talent, I needed a lot of luck. I also noticed that luck was there at the time when I needed it, that was comforting.
I feel a bit anxious as I look toward 2017, uncertainty breeds unease. If we’re lucky (and we are) we’ll be able to look over our shoulder and see that luck has our back.
I know you are already working hard and have the talent, so this week I wish you lots of luck and the ability to recognize it.
