Big Idea: Good Luck
Posted on Oct 30th, 2007
by 
Brian
Brian
I'm on 535 of my first 1,000 "Big Ideas." Re-launching thinkArete with all of them in November and can't wait to share.
Just did this one:
......
Good Luck
That’s brilliant.
Don’t ever look at someone and quickly say “they got lucky.”
99% of the time that’s bullsh*t.
Look a little more closely.
That singer on American Idol who just got the record deal? They didn’t get lucky. They had a dream to make it big. They anonymously followed their passion for years—singing at every opportunity they got—in spite of their friends and family telling them it was impossible. Then they had enough courage to put it on the line to audition and enough mojo to win.
That’s not luck.
That’s tenacity of purpose.
……
Just did this one:
......
Good Luck
“Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Conduct of Life
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Conduct of Life
That’s brilliant.
Don’t ever look at someone and quickly say “they got lucky.”
99% of the time that’s bullsh*t.
Look a little more closely.
That singer on American Idol who just got the record deal? They didn’t get lucky. They had a dream to make it big. They anonymously followed their passion for years—singing at every opportunity they got—in spite of their friends and family telling them it was impossible. Then they had enough courage to put it on the line to audition and enough mojo to win.
That’s not luck.
That’s tenacity of purpose.
……
Access: Public
big ideas
August 2008 
mmmm….
I love how I was drawn to come out to your page today.
I’m thrilled to hear thinkArete is coming back to life. the thinkArete manifesto was the catapult for me leaving my daytime job to fulfill my purpose.
Tenacity of purpose…. WHOA!!!
hey galynne
that gives me such a big smile!!!!
yayuh!!!!
yours in good luck, er, tenacity of purpose!
-bri
I just couldn't agree with you more, Brian. Its like 'free lunch'. No such thing.
It just occurred to me that you're totally right. I heard about this research project where a research team would leave a bunch of money for a homeless person to find, and then observe what he/she did with it. It was enough money to go in a totally different life direction. None of the people made any lasting changes. Most of them did not get a place to live. Which makes me think that in order to accomplish something, one must keep their inspiration going and then utilize resources as they come along. Thus, they can “get lucky.”
i hadn't heard of that project before. thanks form sharing, martha.
in inspiration,
-bri
Martha…. excellent point.
We attract we *believe* we are “worthy” of. It doesn’t mean those homeless people were not worthy of having a lot of money – instead, they subconsciously didn’t BELIEVE they were worthy. Those same results hold true for some people who win the lottery. Often times their milions are spent quickly and they are back to nothing.
It really does start with the belief that we are worthy of all the goodness that comes our way.
And to be honest - it’s a lesson that sporadically surfaces and whacks me in the head [OUCH].