How to Get Lucky

I took my daughters on a cruise to Alaska 10 years ago. On board, we decided to play bingo. My youngest daughter, Madeline, is the luckiest person I’ve ever met. If we were playing board games and she needed double sixes to win, boom, they would appear. So, it was not a surprise that she won at bingo. We had become friendly with those sitting around us and as we got up to leave I said to them, “If you see us here later this week and Madeline is playing, don’t bother buying a card. She’s going to win again.”

And she did.

In all, she won just short of $800.

Madeline Priscilla Farquharson was born on August 8, 1995. The Chinese consider the number eight to be lucky so to be born on 8/8, well … She was destined.

I do not have that same blessing. If there is a 50-50 chance, I will screw up 100% of the time. Case in point: plugging a fan or light into an outlet, the plug only fits if the thick prong goes into the thick receptacle. Otherwise, you have to flip it around. I have a 0% success rate. Same thing happens with USB chords. But I’ve learned how to get lucky. I’ve learned how to become lucky. It’s through hard work.

I’ve trained and coached people who work feverishly at getting into an account. They are relentless and spend months upon months trying to get an appointment or even to get a response. But time and time again, nothing. Then, one day they pull over to the side of the road to help a woman standing next to her broken down car change a flat. It turns out she’s the wife of the company president and the account becomes theirs.

Somehow, luck found this sales rep.

Over the years, I have experienced different versions of this same story. A rep will sit next to someone on a plane and that person is connected at the highest level. Two people meet up at a volunteer event and end up doing business for years. In every case, luck found the hard-working.

Madeline was born lucky. For the rest of us, we have to go looking for it. The good news is, work hard and it will find you.