I don’t know about you, but for a long time, I thought luck in business was essential. I believed in things like ‘catching a lucky break’ and that one day I would get lucky and my business would just explode! Holding on to stories of people who ‘became millionaires overnight’, stories of artists that were lucky and got discovered. I think I wanted to believe that being successful was out of my control and I had to get lucky for people to take notice.
I blamed not growing, not getting sales, not getting any new followers and not moving forward on luck. I’m just not lucky! I fell victim to my own circumstances and decided to just wallow instead of doing something about it.
My view on luck in business has changed. Do you know the story of how Instagram got started? It’s almost always labeled as an overnight success. Instagram was uploaded to the app store around 12:15 am and within hours more than 10,000 people had downloaded it. Another week passed, and another 100,000 people had downloaded the app. In two more months the new Instagram community had grown to a million users. It took them 2-ish months… sounds kinda like an overnight success right? These guys were just lucky right?
Wrong-o! What you don’t know is that before Instagram, the app went by a different name… Burbn. You see, no one ever really stops to think about the journey, what got those lucky ones their multi-million dollar businesses… it wasn’t luck. It was perseverance. If the founders of Instagram hadn’t built Burbn, an app that basically flopped, they wouldn’t have created our beloved Insta. Where would we post selfies you guys?! But in all seriousness, it’s not luck, it’s hard work and attitude. I think Shonda Rhimes says it best:
“I am not lucky. You know what I am? I am smart, I am talented, I take advantage of the opportunities that come my way and I work really, really hard. Don’t call me lucky. Call me a badass.”
I Believe That Luck in Business is Misunderstood
Think of it this way… those insta-famous people, businesses and colleagues that we label more fortunate or luckier than the rest of us… are just the ones that never stop moving forward, the ones that are prepared to take greater risks.
The risk takers have a growth mindset, one that makes them take their failures as lessons and get back up after falling flat on their faces.
I used to play it safe. Never wanting to fail and so I didn’t take the risks. I didn’t invest in myself and my business. For so long I saw others that started a biz at the same time as me, grow and become a 7-figure business, all while I stayed in the shadows of my comfort zone.
Work Long and Hard to Achieve Expert Luck Status
Richard Branson has a pretty good example of the concept of luck: “I remember watching the final round of the British Open golf championship on TV and seeing one of the leaders chip out of a deep green-side bunker. His shot was high but it just clipped the top of the flagpole and amazingly the ball dropped right into the hole. One of the British commentary team exclaimed, ‘Oh my goodness, what a lucky shot!’
Another commentator in the broadcast booth immediately snapped back with a stinging rebuke, ‘Lucky! What do you mean lucky? Do you know how many thousands of hours we all spend practicing shots like that? He was trying to put it in the hole and he succeeded. Let me tell you, he worked long and hard on getting that lucky!'”
So if you want to get lucky, work your butt off. Fuel yourself with your passion and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Leave no door unopened, take every opportunity that comes your way, invest in yo-self, and always always believe in yourself and your dreams.
Take some inspo with you and download the Shonda Rhimes quote wallpaper:
Click here to download I Am A Badass Wallpaper!
How do you feel about luck in business? What roles does it play? Let me know in the comments 🙂
