There is no such thing as luck, but if there was, it is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. it is amazing that the harder you work at something, the better you get at it. We all know people that talk about luck like it were a real thing but in truth, there is no such thing.

Think of your life in terms of two graph lines. Ability and opportunity. In an average person’s life, I am told those two graph lines cross 4-6 times in a person’s life. What it means is that several times in a person’s life, the ability you have lines up with an opportunity to use that ability. The issue is what the person does when his/her two graph lines cross. Do they take the opportunity or not? Fear, inferiority and insecurity probably account for most of the missed opportunities in life.

Take my business for example. We have people that handle the face to face well but not the phone. We have great writers with incredible analytical skill but no personality.  Then we have people that do fantastic on the phone but then bomb when they get face to face. Then you have people like me that don’t do any of it well but just too dense to know better. I cannot tell you the number of people I have met that have such a great presence about them when they speak but because of fear, they never allow themselves to become what they were meant to be. For these people, the years get by and the opportunities to use their abilities become less and less and their life becomes one of regret that they missed the opportunities in their life. They are ones that grow old with the music still in them.

I have often said that the most important ability is availability. The people that do great things are the ones who don’t care what other people think about them and have the courage to try. I stutter so if I had let other people’s opinion of me determine my life, I would have a job today that didn’t require me to talk to anyone. I have a client and dear friend, (SM for short,) who said the first time he talked to me on the phone, he couldn’t understand most of what I said (makes me laugh thinking about it) but he said he picked out three words he understood and answered based on those words. SM and I became like brothers and have been dear friends for 25 years and we have transacted many many times together on hotels. It all started with that first phone call that I was not afraid to make.

There is no luck involved in life. There is preparation and willingness to try and the more you try it is amazing how much you accomplish. In life there is rarely a euphoric life altering moment that defines your future. Most of time the opportunities come when you just lace up your boots and put one foot in front of the other and just don’t stop. KT