“A most interesting subject has been offered,” Arkad commented, “one most worthy of our discussion. To some men, good luck bespeaks but a chance happening that, like an accident, may befall one without purpose or reason. Others do believe that the instigator of all good fortune is our most bounteous goddess, Ashtar, ever anxious to reward with generous gifts those who please her. Speak up, my friends, what say you, shall we seek to find if there be means by which good luck may be enticed to visit each and all of us?” “Yea! Yea! And much of it!” responded the growing group of eager listeners…
“Here is a wise approach,” Arkad approved. “Who among you have had good luck within your grasp only to see it escape?”
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Many hands were raised, among them that of the merchant. Arkad motioned to him to speak. “As you suggested this approach, we should like to hear first from you.”
“I will gladly relate a tale,” he resumed, “that doth Illustrate how closely, unto a man good luck may approach and how blindly he may permit it to escape, much to his loss and later regret.
“Many years ago, when I was a young man, just married and well-started to earning, my father did come one day and urge most strongly that I enter upon an investment. The son of one of his good friends had taken notice of a barren tract of land not far beyond the outer walls of our city. It lay high above the canal where no water could reach it.
“The son of my father’s friend devised a plan to purchase this land, build three large waterwheels that could be operated by oxen and thereby raise the life-giving waters to the fertile soil. This accomplished, he planned to divide it into small tracts and sell to the residents of the city for herb patches…”
” ‘Opportunity stands before thee, my son. It is offering a chance that may lead to wealth. I beg of thee, do not delay. Go upon the morrow to the son of my friend and bargain with him to pay ten percent of thy earnings into this investment. Go promptly upon the morrow. Opportunity waits for no man. Today it is here; soon it is gone. Therefore, delay not!’
“In spite of the advice of my father, I did hesitate. There were beautiful new robes just brought by the tradesmen from the East, robes of such richness and beauty my good wife and I felt we must each possess one. Should I agree to pay one-tenth of my earnings into the enterprise, we must deprive ourselves of these and other pleasures we dearly desired. I delayed making a decision until it was too late, much to my subsequent regret. The enterprise did prove to be more profitable than any man had prophesied. This is my tale, showing how I did permit good luck to escape.”
The above story is an excerpt from the book, “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason
From the above story, we see how the man who narrated his tale lost grip of good luck unconsciously and ended up regretting. This is some us today. Our definition of good luck has been limited by eliminating the importance or necessity of understanding where it comes from; opportunities.
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According to vocabulary.com, Good luck refers to “an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes.” Good luck is a reward for making use of a worthwhile opportunity. In the story from the book, “The Richest Man In Babylon,” we can see the relationship between “good luck” and “opportunities.” it buttress the fact that good luck doesn’t just occur miraculously except in rare cases; it stems from making use of every opportunity that promises success.
Scott Barry Kaufman in his article, “The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized” wrote, “In recent years, a number of studies and books—including those by risk analyst Nassim Taleb, investment strategist Michael Mauboussin, and economist Robert Frank—have suggested that luck and opportunity may play a far greater role than we ever realized, across a number of fields…” This stresses the fact that both are intertwined in ones journey to success. Hence, understanding the role each plays, makes the journey easier.
How To Attract Good Luck
Choices and Decisions Matter.
One thing a lot of people fail to understand is, the decisions they make can determine whether they will be rewarded with good luck or bad luck. The above story gives us a clear example of how choices and decision affects how prone we will be, to attracting good luck. The man in the story stated, “In spite of the advice of my father, I did hesitate… I delayed making a decision until it was too late, much to my subsequent regret. The enterprise did prove to be more profitable than any man had prophesied. This is my tale, showing how I did permit good luck to escape.”
Good luck is a reflection of decisions we make on a daily basis. It’s as simple as making a decision to leverage your social media handles in making more sales as an entrepreneur or connecting to a mentor, who will directly or indirectly speed your growth and productivity.
All these, are products of choices and they have roles to play in making people become lucky in life.
Avoid Delay And Start Small.
In the story, the father advised him, ” ‘Opportunity stands before thee, my son. It is offering a chance that may lead to wealth. I beg of thee, do not delay. Go upon the morrow to the son of my friend and bargain with him to pay ten percent of thy earnings into this investment. Go promptly upon the morrow. Opportunity waits for no man. Today it is here; soon it is gone. Therefore, delay not!’ In spite of that, he still delayed. At the end he said, I delayed making a decision until it was too late, much to my subsequent regret.”
Delaying in making decisions to take advantage of an opportunity can possibly lead to attracting bad luck. The man in the above story delayed in letting his father’s friend son know his interest in investing in his enterprise. Hence, he regretted.
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I once heard of a graduate of Architecture who got the opportunity to work with an NGO as an assistant to the lead Architect, but declined because he felt he just graduated from college with little experience. This is a typical example of derailing from the path of good luck because of an inadequate understanding of starting small.
Starting small means, using the available resources and knowledge to get hold of an opportunity while gaining more knowledge or resources to get the best results. Personally, I can talk about scenerios where starting small attracted good luck for me especially in my journey as a writer and graphics designer.
Starting small, will challenge you to give your best to attain the best result. This will help you prioritize growth over delay, helping you attract good luck more often in life.
Prioritize Optimism Over Pessimism.
When you keep having skeptical thoughts about your goal or journey, you begin to develop deficiency in your approach to making success reality in that path. Hence, you attract bad luck.
Santosh Kalwar wrote, “We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.” This literally enunciate that our actions are a product of our thoughts and to attract good luck, one must model his mindset/thought to be optimistic about success in life.
Be Generous And Give Back To The Society.
Being lucky or successful in life is not only the result of what you extract from people especially in monetary value. Sometimes, it stems from what you give back to the society. This helps you build respect, reputation, create streams of opportunity and makes you a person worth investing in, and with.
It all boils down to focusing more on what you can give rather than take; how you can help rather than be helped. This will create opportunities for you, and bring good luck to you sooner than you expect. It’s an antidote to eliminating bad luck in life.
Keep Good Counsel And Invest In The Future.
To keep attracting good luck, you will need to keep the right company or counsel. Ever seen a man who keeps company with drunkards and lives without drinking to stupor? That’s the case also in attracting good luck. If you want to still be lucky in the future, keep people around you who find pleasure in investing in their future as well.
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The book of proverbs 11:14 stated, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” When you keep the right people around you, you tend to attract more opportunities that brings good luck to you. It’s more like, seeking the counsel of Agricultural Analyst when you want to invest in agricultural produce rather than seeking the counsel of a Sport Analyst when you want to invest in agricultural produce. The former, will bring you good luck while the later, has high probability of bringing you bad luck.
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In summary, attracting good luck is as practical as anything you can ever imagine. All you need is to never leave the atmosphere that attracts opportunity and never let an opportunity that comes with good luck slip through your fingers.
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Beautiful article Doris. 😊