Mysterious Ways in Which Luck and Success Work

Good Luck – Mysterious Ways in Which Luck and Success Work

By Charles L Harmon adapted from an article by Chitraparna Sinha

“A man likes to feel he’s in control of his life, but it is a damned illusion. The ‘X’ factor is always there. You can have all the talent in the world, but without luck you go nowhere”.

- Kirk Douglas

The above quote by Kirk Douglas, the famous American actor says it all. If you take an informal tally you will find there are very few people who can call themselves successful. Now success means different things to different people so the definition of success for me might be different than what you’d call success, but for the sake of this article let’s just assume that we generally associate success with materialistic gains and power.

Isn’t it true that when we have money, we feel a sense of independence, a feeling that luck is favoring us? Luck and successes really do seem to be related.

One can understand luck as;

1. destiny
2. divine providence
3. being at the right place at the right time
4. inner voice

There is a very thin line between having the talent and not utilizing it AND having talent but no luck coming your way to use the talent. In the second category, a person tries very hard to be successful, but every time their ‘luck’ fails them.

Where others with less talent, sometimes much less talent, and in some cases no talent at all seem to get all the breaks, the good luck you might say and things turn out rosy for them. Such situations or circumstances can leave you dishearten, disgusted and ready to give up.

Read this story of ‘luck’ favoring abundance for one and no luck (at least no luck involving fame or fortune) favoring another.

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When two programmers left their jobs, an unusual bonding occurred. One of the programmers, who we’ll call Mr. Experience, was very unhappy because he was fired and he had done nothing wrong. The other programmer, who we’ll call Mr. Helpful, who had by now become good friends with Mr. Experience, quit the job at the same time in protest of firing his friend on trumped up charges.

Mr. Experience had tried several times before to have an import/export business and failed, but he knew the business inside out. Mr. Helpful always wanted to try import/export because he wanted to travel and that was a nice profitable business with lots of potential travel. The problem was books don’t have enough detail for someone wanting to start such a business so Mr. Helpful was “out in the cold” until he learned of Mr. Experience’s heavy experience in that business.

A few months later they started an import/export business together. Unfortunately for both of them they had no choice but to have two partners overseas since they needed an office there and a condition of using his friend’s expensive office for free was to make them partners.

Mr. Experience and Mr. Helpful had spent well over six months research and planning the business and how it was going to operate. Mr. Helpful used his superior English skills to craft letters to exporters all over the world promoting their merchandise.

That paid off with over two million dollars in proforma orders. However, the overseas partners reneged on their promise to follow the business plan and decided they only wanted to work with one of the largest companies that had responded to us.

To make a long story short, Mr. Helpful quit the business. A short time later Mr. Experience also decided it wasn’t going to work with the overseas partners not following up on the anxious potential business clients he couldn’t handle. That was due to no cooperation from his partners. He ditched his partners and tried to do business here, just in the USA through third parties handling importing his merchandise into the USA.

During the next few years Mr. Helpful volunteered to help Mr. Experience and eventually Mr. Experience had a thriving business. After that Mr. Helpful actually worked for Mr. Experience a few years and was instrumental in many ways in advancing the business. Mr. Experience got whole factories in China to make merchandise solely for him and made a lot of money in the process.

Although Mr. Helpful took things in stride he still felt somewhat disheartened at the whole experience since his friend got rich and he got, well, nada, zilch, nothing as far as money goes.

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What he, Mr. Helpful, felt as a disheartening experience turned out to be luck in disguise. Sometimes helping others paves the way for your own good luck.

Mr. Helpful was fortunate and as luck would have it, got married overseas while in the business. His wife had a child a year later and as I type this, his wife has a nice little business here in the U.S., his son just finished serving several years in the military, and Mr. Helpful is on his way to Internet profits.

Because of Mr. Helpful’s continuous help, overseas trips because Mr. Experience didn’t want to go overseas (he was originally from there), and later management of all importing and documentation for the business the business thrived.

Mr. Experience’s luck turned out to be good fortune in the way of money while Mr. Helpful’s luck was a wife and child. You be the judge, which person had the best good luck?

You know the biggest mistake we make or let’s say, the biggest obstacle we pose for ourselves is ‘us’ – yes, you read that right! Every person dreams of success and on that basis constructs his dreams and aspirations. They follow the ‘path’ they feel will lead them to success.

By doing so, we are blocking or obstructing the natural inner voice within us that makes us realize otherwise. We become rigid in our perception and thoughts. Be conscious of your being – expand your horizon. Grab opportunity when it comes knocking – it just might be your luck!

What happened to Mr. Helpful? Mr. Helpful, after helping in his friend’s business for years decided to go back into programming. After ten more years of programming Mr. Helpful is at it again. This time an almost overlooked “I am interested” reply, responding to an internet project he wanted to pursue has him helping someone else that hopefully can bring good luck to both of them.

Moral of the story – keep your subconscious mind receptive to new opportunities. The main thing is to realize the opportunity and grab it in time.

Even though you may be wishing for monetary gains other less tangible opportunities may present themselves. Don’t ignore them for the sake of money or power.

Who knows? Your luck may be waiting just around the corner. Don’t let it pass you by. There may be no second chance!