Comments on: Luck of the Irish? Or can anyone can learn to be lucky?

By: Fast Jay

Fast Jay — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:46:01 +0000

Agree 100%. We create our own luck.
Reminds me of a Bruce springsteen song i read about recently:

You can't start a fire without a spark,
You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart.

Life's short, make sth happen.

By: NomadicNeil

NomadicNeil — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:08:19 +0000

; )

By: jchthys

jchthys — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:11:35 +0000

It's bad luck to be superstitious…

By: Johano

Johano — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:04:59 +0000

It's bad luck to be superstitious…

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:28:09 +0000

Thanks for your comment and I'm glad to see you are applying the principles in that book!
Yes, as I said before conference interpretation just wasn't for me. I'm glad to see you've thought hard about it before jumping on a huge life changing path that may just not be for you.
Best of luck in finding your new path!

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:25:40 +0000

Totally agree I like your example – almost sounds like a real life one…

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:24:26 +0000

Thanks for your comment! I'm not claiming that everyone in the world is exposed to the same chances – what makes you “lucky” is what you do with those chances. A poor man in Africa can be considered much luckier than a rich man in America if the decisions he makes with his resources that lead to a more fulfilling life for him.
There are lots of inspirational stories of people in slums, or people born blind, or people with lots of “bad luck” handed to them who turn things around and live remarkable lives. It may be “easier” for those of us in developed countries in middle to upper class families, but that just emphasises that you have to make the best of your life.

By: linguaholic

linguaholic — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:16:00 +0000

I agree with much of what you write.
Everybody has the possibilities to lead a happy/lucky life by taking things in their own hands and being optimistic. However, it is simply not true to say that everybody has the same chances. Yes, I am where I am now because I worked hard for it, but also because I was LUCKY enough not to be born in a slum in a war-torn country. Lucky to have parents supporting me, having gone to a good school etc. Unless you believe in karma, you can't deny that there are “undeserved” outer circumstances in everybody's life that can make thing a lot easier or downright impossible.

On a lighter note, I just remembered what my English teacher said when he wanted to explain the difference between lucky and happy and got stuck halfway through his sentence:
“You're lucky if you have luck and happy if you … have hap.”

By: NomadicNeil

NomadicNeil — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:33:37 +0000

Hey dude,

I agree with your point of view. I also recommend people read the books Outliers and Dance with Chance. Chances are that if you are reading this blog then you are lucky enough (ie probably born and grown up in a developed country, went to school etc).

I put it this way, you don't make your own luck, rather you make the situations for yoruself where random positive (lucky) things are more likely to happen.

For example, you invite your buddy out to go to a bar, he decides to stay in an play video-games so you go out on your own. You end up meeting a really cool girl. Where you lucky? To an extent, but you did put yourself in a situation where those kinds of things are more likely to happen. Meeting random people in bars tends to happen, not so much when you're sitting at home.

By: Weijin

Weijin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:35:33 +0000

Amazing Benny! Slightly freaky too as I have just finished reading the Luck Factor yesterday! Today is the first day of my luck journal writing. I'm trying to see how "lucky" I can become in a month. I've taken your comments about conference interpretation previously and I've been to a language event, chatted to other interpreters and have come to the conclusion that language is best kept as a passion for me rather than an occupation. My intuition about a job in interpreting was never good anyway. Thank you for your comment that spurred me to look into myself. I must count myself lucky because I've had the privillege of being in contact with you.

I guess I was too desperate to get out of my job and want to grab the quickest route out. I just wanted a fresh start but like everything, it takes time and perseverance. And interpreting like any other job takes years of mental preparation and learning. It's not that I've given up on interpreting but I've realised that it's not what my gut feeling says its right for me. I know that its telling me that something in finance/business is right for reasons too long to elaborate here in this post.

Have fun in your remaining time in Brazil and I will keep a watch out for you summary of being brazillian post.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:24:17 +0000

Yo escribire en español que me es mas facil que en inglés. Bueno queria comentare antes de nada que eres un ejemplo para mi y que ya me gustaria llevar la vida que tu llevas, pero aun leyendo todos tus posts y viendo que no es tan dificil, no se si algun dia sere tan valiente de ponerme a hacerlo, espero que si!!.
Creo que tienes mucha razón en cuanto a que el hecho de tener suerte o no, es en mayor parte la postura que presentas ante la vida. La “suerte” se busca, no aparece de la nada, pero creo que hay algunas situaciones y cosas que aun habiendo puesto buena voluntad no salen como deberian. Ahi para mi, si que exite un cierto facto de suerte, no mistico, sino por el azar, lo que has comentado antes.
La principal razon para tener suerte en la vida es ser positivo ante todo, y me gusta bastante como lo has expresado. Un saludo!

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:43:27 +0000

Thanks Lauren! One reason I wrote this post is because a lot of people dismiss my achievements (like they do yours) as luck. That's only seeing the end result and not the struggle to get there or the sacrifices and the smart decisions made along the way. Anybody's luck can be explained as them taking advantage of opportunities available to them and working damn hard with them, while keeping optimistic. Sadly this optimism is misread as everything coming so easy to them – like a universal conspiracy.
Hopefully this post will light a fire under people's asses and let them know it's not such a mysterious and mystical thing if someone tries to make their dreams come true

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:09:55 +0000

I relate to this post 100%. I cannot tell you how many times I've been told that since I do well in school, get scholarships, enjoy what I study, spent a year in France as an exchange student, and speak French fluently, I am somehow “lucky”. It's really quite aggravating because it takes away from the fact that I've really worked my @$$ off to get where I am today. My parents weren't rich, the exact opposite actually, and I held a part time job throughout high school to pay for my exchange program. I made a point to learn French while I was there and refused to speak English, even though it would have made things a lot easier at times. Now that I'm back, I work hard in school and I socialize with French students at my university to maintain my speaking skills.

Like you said, luck is what you make of each opportunity that is presented to you. Instead of hearing about something exciting and wishing it would happen to you, make it happen! Do your research and find out what you have to do to get where you want to go. An exciting life isn't going to simply present itself on your doorstep if all you do is sit idly on the sidelines!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:07:12 +0000

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:59:24 +0000

Thanks for your comment Daphne
A wise friend of mine also once told me “You make your own luck”. I remember that TED talk – the irony of too much choice being something that we don't inherently want. All very interesting!

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:48:41 +0000

You've misunderstood what I was saying, I never said “don't work hard” (in fact, my whole post implies the exact opposite) or that people can get exactly my life. Really don't know how you made those conclusions.
I'm also not denying the existence of chance in influencing how our lives develop, but chance and luck are not the same thing (the latter has a mystical and magical sense to it). People should focus more on what they can influence rather than leave too many things up to chance and hope that they are lucky.

By: Daphne

Daphne — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:43:13 +0000

Benny, I love this blog entry and expected nothing less than brilliance from my "soul" (virtual?) brother. I'm generally resistant to advice, but this set of useful tips is good enough to bookmark.

I'm reminded of a day a few years ago in which I accidentally broke a mirror. Although I'm not superstitious, I couldn't help but wonder a little bit and worry a little bit. I confessed this concern to a friend who witnessed the mirror-breaking event, and she simply said, "You make your own luck."

I believe this to be true. Whether or not we believe in the power of anything happening on an otherworldly level or a quantum-physical level, we are absolutely in charge of how our life is going to go (in addition to our attitude about it and how we are going to feel in retrospect and what we are going to say about it). I also believe in the power of belief and focus. I've experienced the power of focus while learning how to ride a motorcycle. If you look to the right, you turn to the right. If you look at the guardrail (or other obstacle), you will aim for the guardrail and have an accident. If you focus on where you want to go, you will get there. If you focus on what you don't want to have happen, you might get there, too.

There was a wonderful TED talk awhile back on synthesizing happiness. Even though we're not always in control of the external factors, we're always in control of our attitudes. One thing the speaker noticed, too, is that we are generally happier when we *don't* have too many choices about how things go; we're less likely to regret or wonder.

By: wccrawford

wccrawford — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:23:09 +0000

You were almost there when you were trying to say that you should ignore 'luck' and make things happen for yourself, rather than hoping the universe would just give it to you.

But then your examples of people who fake luck on video kind of change the message. Now, you're saying that you aren't 'lucky', but that someone had to end up with a life of where everything goes your way, and it just happens to be you. That message is absolutely useless to everyone else because they didn't get that life, you did. How do they know? They've already lived a portion of theirs and didn't get what you did so far.

Now, luck DOES exist. If you want to work for yourself, anyone can do that. But to get into a position where you make good money, don't work hard, and STILL work for yourself... That either takes a lot of luck, or a LOT of skill. And getting to that skill either takes luck or hard work. And since "don't work hard" was part of the criteria, that only leaves luck again.

Just explaining luck doesn't make it not be luck.

No, let's bring it back on point: You can have anything you want, so long as you're willing to work and sacrifice for it. I could be making a lot more money right now, but I prefer my (fairly) easy job and my free time for my hobbies, including language-learning. You have to be able to see the choices available to you and pick one, instead of letting life drag you along and taking whatever you get by default.