How to Get Lucky
The other day, I wrote a Facebook post about a challenge I encountered upon moving to Spain and someone responded, “You’re so lucky you live in Spain now!”
And I just about sprained my eyeballs rolling them. Sure, some luck was involved. Luck is involved in everything. But moving to Spain wasn’t a random gift of fate. It required a lot of hard work and significant sacrifices. I wasn’t lucky I moved to Spain; I made a determined effort to do so.
If you do anything anyone else wants to do (publish a book, find the love of your life, graduate from a prestigious program), you’ll hear about how lucky you are.
And that’s okay. I mean, I don’t care if people think I’m lucky and overlook all the hard work that goes into the things I do.
But it’s important for anyone who wants to accomplish anything to get past that kind of simplistic thinking.
Of course luck matters. But by itself it’s probably not going to get you anywhere you want to go. If you want to publish that book, you have to write it first. If you want to graduate from that prestigious program, you have to apply first.
The other day, one of my students mentioned that he’d sent out a letter of introduction to a publishing company he wanted to proofread for. They came back asking if he could do development for them.
Development pays better than proofreading and (for most of us, anyway) it’s a lot more interesting than proofreading. He was incredibly excited about this opportunity.
Did he get lucky? Sure, you could say that. He just happened to mention developmental editing in his letter. The publishing company just happened to need a developmental editor when his letter landed in their inbox.
But he couldn’t have gotten lucky if he hadn’t sent the letter.
The best way to get lucky? Figure out what you want and take some steps towards getting it.
