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Getting Lucky

 


There is a phrase you may have heard, “The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” I think there is often a fine line between luck and persistence.

Imagine you are a baseball player and every time you are up to bat, you close your eyes and swing for the fences (granted, this is not a great strategy for success, but humor me for a moment). Even though your eyes are closed, if you have enough at-bats, eventually you will connect. So, what do we call it when you finally hit a home run? Yes, in that one at-bat, it sure seems like luck. But if that was your ten thousandth attempt, it begins to feel more like perseverance and persistence.

They say Thomas Edison invented the filament that would make his incandescent light bulb possible with his ten thousandth experiment. Was he lucky? I think we can all look at someone like Edison and agree he had perseverance, not luck. He was committed and persistent, yet there still may have been a certain amount of luck in that final experiment. However, that last test was built on a foundation of thoughtful persistence.

Unlike the baseball player, Edison did not keep his eyes closed during each attempt, but enthusiastically learned from each “at-bat” to give the next attempt a better chance at connecting. In the moment of triumph, luck may have played a part. But the process of thoughtful persistence made it possible.

To be at the right place at the right time, you must keep showing up.

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