Are You Lucky, Fortunate, or Good?
Much to my wife’s disdain, talk radio not only keeps me awake during road trips it entertains me and helps to pass the time much more quickly as I drive. She on the other hand finds it mostly boring and doesn’t quite understand my attempts to argue with a medium that is incapable of hearing or responding to my points. Thankfully, during our recent return trip from holiday our little one needed her attention more than usual and I was able to argue, insult, agree and disagree with almost any talking head I wanted.
For a majority of the morning I spent listening to sports talk radio and realized that consecutive show hosts must not listen to each other nor are they required to go over their show points or line-ups in advance. Most of the issues covered on the early show were re-hashed and re-worded time and time again later in the day. Needless to say, my afternoon listening strayed somewhat from sports talk radio to other interesting topics I could find on my overwhelming number of satellite radio stations.
There was one section of my sports talk radio listening that stood out in my mind this morning and I have been thinking about it most of the day. The host spent a good portion of his time trying to get his listeners to understand that luck plays little to no role in the success of successful people. At first I thought his idea was just an extreme to rile some up but as he explained his points a little more with sports examples, I began to see it a little more clearly and ultimately wonder how much it plays into the life of a freelancer.
Lucky
Many of us often wish good luck on others before performances, life events and travels but when they finish the task we wished them luck for do we attribute their success to luck? I have a sister-in-law who makes the decision (for what reasons I cannot fathom) to push her body to the limit and run races in distances up to 26.2 miles. Before her race, I and many others wish her luck at her upcoming task. But is it luck that she finishes? No, it’s because she trains diligently and consistently for weeks on end prior to said race to prepare her body and mind for the task at hand.
Similarly, I don’t feel that my ability to find work and provide a living for my family is due to luck in freelancing. I have worked hard the last three and a half years to produce a quality brand, good work, and I make every attempt to be as reliable as possible to my clients. It wasn’t luck that when three new lodging companies opened in a certain area this year that they called looking for help promoting their businesses. They called because the quality of work I provide to similar clients in their field stands for itself. They called because others in town, when asked, mentioned my company as the only one worth working with and could attest to my meeting their needs.
Fortunate
Different from luck, but not necessarily different in nature, being fortunate isn’t usually the first answer either. At least in freelancing.
If your great-grandfather started a manufacturing plant in the 1930’s and then passed it on to your grandfather, father and ultimately your hands – you are fortunate. In almost every case, freelancers don’t have that fortune. We start from ground zero, working every day to polish and produce with the hopes of one day creating a fortunate instance for those who come after us.
I am a firm believer though that the harder you work at something, the more fortunate you become. Feel like writing for a living? Start writing. Write every day. Start a blog, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, write cards to your family/friends, and even write things nobody will ever read. You will not only get better at your writing but I firmly believe that somebody will notice you. It’s crazy (and humbling) to see emails and responses to stuff I’ve written from people all over the world who’ve stumbled across my writing in some form or another. From writing on my own and practicing my craft, my work has been found and opportunities have been afforded. That to me is hard work showing itself as good fortune.
Good
What we sometimes consider lucky or fortunate are by-products of being good at what we do. Am I fortunate to have a job that I don’t have to ask for time off or worry about whether I only have 3 vacation days left? Yep. Did I get it because I was lucky? Nope. I got it because I work hard at what I do and I work harder at getting better at it every day. By getting better at what I do, I create circumstances around myself for others to notice and hopefully gain from it.
The problem you will find as a freelancer is that you have to be getting better at every part of your business all the time. Building relationships, networking, selling, invoicing, client interaction, placing your product, marketing, PR, writing, designing, developing and so on. Though some may not be highlights of your day, each part of your business is integral to the whole. If your marketing is failing, more than likely your sales are dropping. If your development skills are lacking then your finished sites aren’t coming off as beautiful as your mocks were to the client.
Reputations and client relationships aren’t based on luck. CEO’s of big firms, top sales guys, athletes and entertainers rarely make their mark on luck. I would venture to bet that in almost every case of self-made successful people hard work paid dividends multiple times that of luck. Create your own good fortune with hard work and don’t fall into the trap of thinking that someone is doing better that you because they are just lucky.
Are you lucky, fortunate or good?
Christian Ross is a freelance designer/developer based in Grapevine, Texas. You can read his ramblings and/or follow him on twitter .
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Great article. Has made me think about my current situations.
I am blessed.
Nice text! Been lurking around for the past two months and this is the first comment. And, by the way, I’m a Brazilian who lives in Japan. So that one more globalized comment for you
I read somewhere that “luck is when opportunity meets preparation.” It became a personal motto two years ago.
Plus, the Japanese never say “good luck” — they always say “ganbatte”, which roughly translates as “persist” or “try your best”.
Cheers, D.
I’m working toward Good, but I’m probably just lucky at this point. It’s a process though. I’m getting there and 2009 is the year.
I personally think Lucky and Good can go hand in hand. I am where I am today because I was Lucky enough to be involved in some really interesting conversations with some very smart people BUT that in of itself didn’t get me here. It required being Good and following through on the things. Pushing myself in new ways and in new directions that were filled with risk but came with great rewards.
I agree with Brandon, I’m first blessed and then the other things follow.
Being “good” increases the chances that luck hits you, but it is not neither a sufficient nor a necessary precondition.
I feel all three are related.
You are lucky to be born with whatever skills you posess. You are fortunate to be in a position to use them at the level you would like to. And you are good when you put the skills to use and can make a living or get great satisfaction from using the skills.
In sport, I do triathlons. I’m lucky to have skills where I am pretty good at cycling, not bad at running and getting better at swimming. I’m fortunate to be able to be in a position to train in all three disciplines and endevour to get better at them. I am good when I set goals I want to achieve in races and get there.
Same thing can be applied to freelancing. I’m lucky to have a logical mind, good at programming. I am fortunate to be in a position to use it. I am good at what I do and can make a living from it.
Thanks all for the comments.
@Brandon Cox – I would agree with your statement, I feel like I am blessed to be doing what I am doing as well. For both the talents I have and the means to be able to use them. Guess another article should be in order!
@J. Bentley – I bet you’re better than you think you are! Good luck in 2009, keeping up with places like FSw are a great way to stay connected and learn a bunch along the way.
@Klaus – True, being good at what you do isn’t a precondition to being lucky but I do believe it can help. Sometimes it can just be a right-place, right-time situation but for the rest of us that are mostly right-place, wrong-time we’ve got to do something to keep up!
I wish you all good luck and fortune in 2009. Get great at what you’re doing and you will be surprised to see how well the first two just seem to fall into place!
Every day I work towards becoming better or good, with out that effort there is no advancement. I also feel fortunate to have what I have up to this point, although if it wasn’t for hard work I probably would not have it. Lucky.. well, I was lucky enough to find a ten dollar bill on the way to the studio the other day! probably wouldn’t have happened when i was full time.! I would definitely have to agree with Klaus on the luck conditions! – happy new Year to ALL –
ben
I think if you’re good, when you get lucky, you’re more likely to benefit from the luck. I also think the product of being good and lucky is fortune. As long as you continue to capitalize on good luck, it keeps momentum going.
Everyone can get lucky with a few opportunities, but those that are good will make sure to maximize the result of that luck.
I heard the same podcast from Colin Cowherd. I got the same gratification from the radio show!
You create your own luck. It’s true that some people seem more lucky – they seem to get more opportunities placed in front of the. I don’t believe these people actually have more opportunity – they just see more opportunity. If this is not an innate skill, you can learn it. Start looking today.
I think this is an interesting article…and brings up a lot of good ideas and questions.
I think if you try hard and get good at what you do then you can be fortunate enough to excel at your trade. In other words, being good is just a matter of trying hard at a particular thing and getting better and better at it.
When you are fortunate you have basically worked your way to get to the top and if you are truly “good” at what you do…then you are fortunate to have gotten where you are…because others who are considered “less fortunate” usually have not tried hard enough to get to the status of their choice.
Luck is a confusing one. I personally don’t think there is a such thing as “luck” necessarily. I mean yes there are times where something comes your way and you were like “ya, that was pretty lucky” but in all reality something “good” that you did in your past helped lead you to that stroke of luck. It rarely ever happens that someone actually achieves genuine luck…they usually have done something prior to have earned that stroke of luck.
I basically believe luck is just something we give to another individual or group as a morale booster. It is merely a spirit lifter for the person or group reaching for a goal and nothing more. We tell someone “hey good luck out there” because we want them to feel that we care about their success and in turn it allows them to feel better about themselves and to try harder because they know someone confident about their achievements is watching them.
I definitely agree with the sentiment, but remember, all the time people forget the things that they are lucky to have, or just don’t acknowledge them.
(1) You could only create a successful career because you are lucky to be healthy.
(2) You are lucky to have been born in a country that gives you access to a computer and enough leisure time to gain the skills that you have.
(3) You’re lucky to have a happy family that encourages you to work hard everyday so you can provide for them.
Great article. It feels good reading it. It’s a reassurance for what I have achieved sofar. Many thanks!
Fortune favors the prepared.
I’m good