How many times have we heard successful people claim that their hard work is what enabled them to reach where they are today? Invariably, they follow this statement up with: “You see, I was at the right place at the right time.” In simple translation, this means: luck is nothing but the fusion of preparation and talent with opportunity.
So what does it say about the existence of this powerful force, luck?
To take an example from our day-to-day lives, we often say that had we been born in a different year, we would not have made the wonderful friends we did at school or college—or both. Well, your meeting a particular set of people, being born in a particular city, and into a particular family is not luck—it is the product of the countless fragments of actions that took place in different timelines, resulting in your present. Since your mind associates your present status with positivity, happiness and joy, it often labels even remotely favorable outcomes as “good luck” or “good fortune”.
The truth is: there are endless random scenarios that take place, thereby birthing endless possibilities. This randomness is born out of luck that has been distinguished as hope, potential joy, and faith!
Let’s admit it: luck makes our lives more endurable and believable; and instills in us the courage to battle on with the tedium that is life. Hope and faith exist so long as luck does. They’re inextricably correlated. If you remove from a person their ability to experience a life of luck and randomness, you will, simultaneously, steal from them their faith and hope.
Admittedly, I may have some personal biases here; and pointed though it may sound, luck always seems to disfavor those who depend upon it most fervently. To be sure, I do believe that some people are lucky—those who, despite being up against millions of competitors, scale the crest of success are undoubtedly lucky; but the important thing to understand here is that luck isn’t all that they have.
To my mind, luck is that one extra push from the Universe which gives you the signal that you are moving in the right direction; and whenever people disagree with this opinion of mine, I understand where they’re coming from; for there are endless examples of people who strive on with everything they’ve got and yet fail in getting what they desire; conversely, there are infinite instances of those who, without making even the slightest effort, get all that they seek. This, however, is still a product of the random events that occur. Essentially, where others see luck, I see probability—so even if the probability of something working out for someone is 0.0001, there is still a chance.
So luck, as it were, depends on a certain interpretation of quantum mechanics—and this because of the inordinate random events that pave the way for endless possibilities to exist in this Universe; therefore, however much we know about the laws and principles of the universe, we can never predict every event that happens—even in theory. This suggests that the possibility of a given event cannot be zero: your life could completely change tomorrow or, on the flip side, never change at all.
It is a sudden change that brings you happiness; it is not magic but mostly your attitude towards it.
The only good luck venerable individuals had was being born with the ability to overcome their bad luck, or—if I were to put it in a better way—with the determination to turn adverse circumstances on their head, thus making even those work to their benefit.
So, maybe, I do believe in luck . . . . Will I wear my lucky perfume for a high-stakes exam? Absolutely. But will I, abandoning the need to study for the same, only depend on my lucky perfume? Absolutely not, for that would be idiocy. Good luck comes to people who think they are lucky—as it is the mindset that eventually matters. In conclusion, I shall forever believe that the harder we work, the more luck we are likely to amass.
Edited By-Sayan Bajaj
