One man’s luck…!
Two men strolling along a towpath. They tripped over something and both fell into the canal. One swam to the side and was pulled out unscathed by two passing bystanders, the other one drowned.
“Wow, that was lucky,” cried another bystander.
“Not really,” said the man who was saved. “I learned to swim, he didn’t.”
There’s an undeniable logic in that.
So what is luck, and is there such a thing?
In my perception luck is nothing more than an opportunity. If you are prepared, you can take advantage of an opportunity. Some people call that luck. I call it being prepared and taking action.
I had a client whose mother was ninety five. It was obvious to him that he and his brother would soon benefit from an inheritance. But what to do with the money, which would be divided equally?
My client, in his early life, had failed to take out a pension plan when he became self-employed. Thus he was looking forward to living only on a state pension. He didn’t like that prospect so he decided when the time came he would invest in property and earn an income from that.
He then spent the next three years learning everything he could about the subject and when the time came some three years later, he was prepared, and when eventually the money arrived in his bank account he immediately bought a property he’d had his eye on (he’d already done his due diligence). He did a quick refurbishment and found tenants very quickly. Almost immediately he was receiving an income.
“Ooh you are lucky,” commented a friend.
“That’s as maybe,” he replied, “though I don’t believe that losing your one and only mum is lucky. More to the point, I saw an opportunity inevitably coming and prepared for it so that when the time came, I was ready. No magic, no smoke and mirrors. I saw an opportunity coming down the line and I prepared for it.”
The acceptance of the inevitable. Every cloud has a silver lining and that was his silver lining. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t sad and grieving. He thinks of her almost every day, and his deceased dad as well. And he’s grateful he had the opportunity.
By contrast the friend who had pronounced him lucky also lost his mother, who lived in a large house in a reasonably affluent area, shortly after. At the funeral he commented to my client that he’d have to deal with the sale of his mum’s property and then be burdened with the money he would receive. He had no siblings. And what a lot of work it would be to empty the house and prepare it for sale.
My client could hardly believe his ears. The hardship of having to do a tiny bit of work in order to be given North of half a million quid! My client thinks he was ‘expected’ to feel sorry for him. His only comment: “I wish I had a problem like that!”
He could not see this as an easy opportunity to significantly increase his wealth. And he considers himself to this day as someone who never has any luck!
Am I living on another planet?