Many really successful people have graced my life. Uniformly they created their success on their own - meaning no one was there to guide them, show them or tell them. In business, some were national successes, some regional and some hands-on local owner-operators. And some of them told me the single thing that explained their success: luck.
Some became intimates of mine as we worked so closely and others are lifetime friends. My glimpse into their success was up close and personal; me doing what I do and them tirelessly pursuing their intentions, personally and professionally. None of them had detailed plans or even clear ideas about what it was they were creating. They had no criteria or cookie-cutter notions about how they would succeed. They just insisted on doing it; they expected it of themselves. They chose to live the way they lived, doing what they did, in order to feel good about themselves. And that was their criteria: did they feel good about ‘this’? - in the moment, right now, whatever the decision or idea. They lived life as if it mattered, taking full responsibility for everything that happened. But when asked, they saw themselves as really lucky.
Amazing, isn’t it. So many really successful people can’t explain their success. Two things stand out to me. First, their luck followed personal effort, personal commitment and always seeing themselves as the person in charge - accepting 100% accountability for any mistakes or problems. They accepted it as the price of discovering what would eventually work - for them. Somehow they were deeply motivated to get what they wanted, without really knowing what it might eventually be or look like. As an onlooker, it looked amazing.
Second, while these amazing people accomplished so much, personally and professionally, they credited luck for it. In my view, it was their way to keep things in perspective. For them it was being real, honest. And with them it was important to be grateful and modest about it. They were shy to talk about it. It also cknowledged they had no plan, no guide, no genius about their long term success. None of them ever said, ‘here’s the secret’ or ‘here’s how I did it’. ‘Luck’ was their way of acknowledging the mystery and the humbling reality they lived with everyday: making choices that felt 'right', for them, amidst the uncertainty and sometimes anguish we all feel in life. They simply took responsibility for what they wanted and trusted that somehow they could do it; that was their intention. They called it luck.
Here's to luck!
My conclusion is that they kept tuned into their heart’s desire as often as they could, or needed to, each time discovering that they did know what to do, in spite of the challenge facing them. Each time, though different, they found that same reservoir of strength and shaky courage: to hear themselves and hear what they needed to do. They acted, trusting themselves to succeed in the moment at hand. Success for them was a moment by moment experience, each time choosing to make it matter, because they thought their life mattered.
What would make your life matter today? Maybe you’ll get lucky.
コメント