I told you about the strange smells that I found at Harvard University yesterday, but I didn’t tell you why I was there…
This past weekend, we had a small gathering of Explorer Partnership members at two different restaurants – one for lunch and one for dinner.
We do at least one dinner per month somewhere in the world, but this ‘double meal day’ wasn’t what we normally do. We first met at Mike and Patty’s, which is a breakfast sandwich shop with a cult following, for a late lunch and then we migrated over to Hot Box for dinner.
(Both of these restaurants are owned by Explorer Partnership members.)
This gathering was extremely casual and the focus was on just having a good time. We had several members fly in from across the US, as they had some ‘business’ to follow up on with other members.
These ‘business’ matters were first sprouted while on our Hong Kong trip last month.
But, that’s not the part that I’m going to talk about…
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Luck is a weird thing. Some people don’t believe in luck and think it’s all up to you to make things happen. Others think that luck is the only thing that determines the success in someone’s life.
Personally, I think luck is mostly a big pile of manure.
Of course there are some things that are pure luck. Where you’re born, the body you’re born with, and the support you have as a young child. These are major factors that play into the path that you can choose.
But, at some point, the responsibility and actions that you take are what determine your luck.
Now, this is not to say that some of us have been served a continuous series of unfortunate events. The key is what we do with these misfortunes… how we rebound from them, how we avoid them in the future, and how we grow stronger after confronting major challenges.
Some of us have been served nothing but opportunities to capitalize on. But just like recovering from failures, great opportunities can be blundered by foolish actions or simply letting these gifts float right by us.
So the outcome of both ‘bad luck’ and ‘good luck’ really depend on how you react to them.
Someone who is ‘unlucky’ could have been given everything in the world, but just blew it all away.
Someone who is ‘lucky’ could have been given nothing but challenges, but capitalized on them all.
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Recently, I have encountered a ridiculous amount of lucky situations. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where it’s weird.
I’m talking crazy coincidences that could not have possibly been chance. And these situations seem to keep happening.
I’ll give you an example…
I met a brilliant guy from San Francisco last year, who has ended up becoming someone I deeply respect. A little while later, I met two other people from Texas who have a completely different background but are equally impressive in their own ways.
Unbeknownst to me, these three people – the one from SF and the two from Texas – started to have weekly phone calls about developing a technology to increase human brain capacity.
Apparently, they have been researching and discussing all kinds of new breakthroughs in this field. Through these phone calls, they have discovered a company which they are trying to get connected with.
Then… at our dinner in Boston, I found out that one of our guests is an investor in the exact company that those three are trying to get connected with.
Lucky?
Or is it that similar people tend to hang out in similar circles?
Or maybe it’s just that luck comes out of nowhere… especially when you work hard and put yourself in the path of opportunities.
So, how are you making yourself lucky?
Where are you going and what are you doing next week? Are you putting yourself in uncomfortable positions? Are you reaching out to strangers? Are you having conversations that challenge your thinking? Because that is how luck will start to cross into your life…
