Well, are you?
How lucky have you been in your life? Where were you born, what is your IQ, how good looking are you? There are many facets of our lives that we have no control over and it has all come down to random chance, luck, kismet.
It is of course not the only influence on the system though. Where you were born need not be where you stay, a low IQ can be bolstered by quality education and the detriment incurred from poor looks can be offset in a myriad ways from exercise, personality growth and even learning to sing. It is amazing how attractive a good voice or a passionate mind can be.
What about other lucky episodes. Can health be attributed to luck? Of course if it comes down to genetic disposition or lessons learned from parents. What about finances? Same thing. Some people have psychological tendencies that can help them better manage their money than others. Perhaps there are genetic links here too. Some also have a predilection to gamble or risk take more than others.
So, how lucky have you been?
Here at Steemit, luck plays quite a big role for many in regards to rewards. Why are some posts rewarded by the bots, others go by unnoticed? It seems to have little to with quality at times.
Others were lucky to come across Steemit early. Perhaps a friend introduced them to it and without that, they would still be posting pictures of their dinner to Facebook but instead, they have 2000 followers, whale bots trained on them and are enjoying large payouts.
Perhaps we are all lucky here so far. We are all pretty early into the game and if we work together, we could all help each other build this platform into greatness and benefit us all.
The title is ' Are you feeling lucky?' though.
When do you feel lucky? In your job or relationship, your children or family, your intelligence or skillset? When you get a job, do you put it down to luck or hard work? Are you truly the best candidate that exists or, are you lucky that person didn't interview for the job?
Often when we get good results, we minimise the role luck plays in our success. We put it down to hard work and dedication as well as our knowledge and skills. But, I wonder if the timing was changed slightly, would the results be the same?
From the Steemit example of high payout posters. Some of them I read are truly brilliant. They put a massive amount of effort in, have wide and deep knowledge and operate their accounts well. Others are mediocre at best and if they were to join Steemit now, would struggle to get traction regardless of their consistency and would be posting cross-fingered or complaining about the trending posts themselves. How many do you think feel lucky to be there?
There are a few there who seem to understand this and are grateful for their position and therefore continue to work hard. Some others think it is all down to their raw talent and perhaps take their position for granted.
I am not picking on Steemit posters though. This is a common phenomena in the real walking world too. When a company is enjoying good results it is all down to strong leadership, good decisions and hard work. When results are dropping away, it is all market forces, external influences and bad luck. Governments do the same with their results.
Good luck is attributed to me and my talent, bad luck is all something else I have no control over. We under weigh the role of random, dumb luck.
There is more to success than just luck however. Success is a combination of many factors that come together but for every success story we hear about claiming skill, we should look at all of the failures that did near identical actions but didn't quite have the timing, didn't get the right introductory handshake at the party or happen to step into a random lift with the perfect investor.
Being prepared for when luck strikes takes unguaranteed work investment but, not doing the work and just hoping for luck to strike is not only going to minimise chances for success but, if the wheel never lands on your number, the position can be terrible, and meaningless.
For me personally, if I were to recount my entire life, you would likely say that luck hasn't exactly been a great friend to me. Yet, I am still here, able to write this, possibly even help some people from time to time, dance with my wife, read to my child, earn a little money to survive and feel that there is not only hope in my life, but meaning.
There have been several times much of that felt impossible. Many times that I didn't think I would make it through. I have been lucky to have whatever I have had that has given me the strength to get this far. Sometimes that luck came in the form of a helping hand, sometimes it was from deep inside and I had the strength to pull myself out of a hole.
And for that I am grateful and I count myself lucky. Maybe, we are all luckier than we think.
So, feeling lucky?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
BTW, I went to my google drive and searched luck and the image came up. It is from Helsinki two years ago. What luck!! With this kind of luck going, perhaps @randowhale will throw me a freebie :D
You write a lot of awesome posts that make people think about life and their place in it. I feel lucky that I found you in this strange virtual ecosystem, because I enjoy reading what you have to say. Is that "luck?" I think so, in a basic sort of sense.
I feel fortunate that I was born with a fairly decent brain and better health than most people seem to enjoy. I feel lucky to have met my wife... we knew each other as kids; later briefly connected when I was in college, she in high school... we lost touch; she changed her legal name. That I completely accidentally and randomly would be reading her blog one day-- not knowing who had written it, but inspiring me to leave a comment... that's luck. Or destiny, perhaps. Kismet, as you said.
Some say "We create our own luck." As a young man, I played golf as "almost professional" level... I was leading a tournament, almost finished, hit a good shot in the middle of the fairway... the ball landed on a sprinkler head and bounced into someone's garden causing me to lose the lead and the tournament... "bad luck?" Did I "create" that luck?
The universe is mysterious...
Thank you for the kind words.
It is an amazing story with your wife. It is very strange indeed how life works out.
It is funny the little events that can change our paths. All of the planning, training and preparation can be nullified by a sprinkler head. It could have also bounced fair and put you close for an easy putt. A very different story and possibilities.
I write so much because it helps me write more if you know what I mean (which I think you of all people do). I have to work very hard at this and cross my fingers a little in regards to reward that someday it will get picked up consistently. It may never happen of course but it will not be through lack of effort.
There is meaning in that for me.
Well, you're certainly one of the hardest working Steemians, just in terms of the sheer volume of high quality posts you publish. Unfortunately, "our type" of writing tends to take the longest to gain traction (following) in social media because it's a specialized niche following... on the upside, consistent publishing also leads to some of the most loyal followings. Barring major disasters, by this time next year you will have 2000 followers and that consistency will be there.
In the meantime... life is typically unpredictable.
"The opportunity is always painted bald and you have to take it by the hair" So...
Hahahaha, looks like we are dancing around the flames in the same ritual tribe circle here. At least, three of us. ¡Nevertheless! :)
I feel lucky today in finding and reading this article. I love the line"...dance with my wife, read to my child..." Thank you.
You are most welcome and thank you for taking the time to comment also.
If we consider two different people, one born with certain "advantages" and the other born without these "advantages", the spontaneous response is that the one born with the advantages is lucky.
However, what if the "lucky" person never has to apply themselves, skates through life and accomplishes mediocre achievements, while the "unlucky" person has to work harder, appreciates what he gains, and through required perseverance achieves great things?
Who really was the "lucky" one? Can having a head start reduce how far we end up going? Good thought to ponder, this "luck" concept.
The one born with the lucky advantages was unfortunately unluckily idiotic. And vice versa.
You are right though. Many do nit realise tgeir luck and squander the position, thise that don't are grateful and work.
Some in poor positions are grateful it isn't worse and work to get out.
Often, people looking from below see success as only luck, people looking from up high see failure as laziness.
A lot of people have told me I'm very lucky but for me I have to see it to believe it . To me happiness is part of luck as well , when your happy and think positive , you create a better outcome
Since I like to raise questions, what if you miss seeing the luck ( or bad luck)? If someone points it out, do you investigate or say it isn't luck because you didn't see it yourself?
Beautiful
Nice post, @tarazkp. You touched on it a bit but I think timing plays such a huge role in all of it. I've always considered myself pretty lucky and have often marveled at how many times I've just happened to pull up right behind a car that's just pulling out of a busy parking lot just when I'm looking for a spot and other things like that. It's like there's this natural rhythm and timing to things and some people are naturally more in sync with that than others. Maybe that's not true at all though and is just a perception that some people form about themselves in terms of either being 'lucky' or 'unlucky'. Even with my car example, there have still been times when I've had to look around for a good parking spot. It's possible that I'm just selectively remembering the times it worked out very well for me and having that information feed into my own self concept of being a lucky person. Hmmmm....I can tell I'm going to be contemplating this more tonight....lol. Anyways....thanks for the post, it was an interesting and intellectually stimulating read!