Lady Luck

I often hear this phrase, It’s better to be lucky than good! and I’ve always found it a bit of an odd statement.

Do I believe in lucky? Perhaps.

I think that luck exists in a lot of forms. The guy that’s never played 21, yet blows everyone away on the first hand. The person that walks into the local 7-eleven and buys the winning ticket to state jackpot. I think there are many events like this that could be easily attributed to Lady Luck and all her glory.

When it comes to business though, I prefer to think of it more as, It’s better to be good enough to create your own luck.

Create Your Own Luck

As it is with everything, it’s always difficult to comprehend how things work. How’d that person lose that weight? How’d that company grow to be the power house they are today?

It’s easy to sit back and think, Damn, they were just at the right place at the right time.

And while there is no denying that being at the right place at the right time is a quality to seek, it’s not to say it’s without valuable merit that you as a business owner should also pursue.

For instance, athletes are the best example of this phoneme.

It’s easy to sit back and admire their work in their respective domain. They get out there, they hustle, they move, they do things with their bodies with you admire. To some of us, we’ll think It’s in his genes, He’s naturally gifted, etc… but in reality we’re over looking certain things.

We’re overlooking the time it took to get there, the hours of training, the hours of coaching, the hours of hard-work. The grind they went through to reach the success that we admire.

This is no different to running and starting your own business.

One does not simply begin to exist, one must work to establish credibility and provide value that others seek. It’s on you however to identify what that value is. You cannot simply walk through the door and say, Here I am, love me for all my glory. It’s impractical, and all those following the grind will not be receptive to the strategy.

Strategy to Luck

There is no secret weapon to creating your own luck, it takes time and hard work. That’s the first thing to understand.

In my eyes, being good enough to create your own luck can be achieved in four repeatable phases:

1. Identify.

• You must first identify the the value that you want to be associated with. The value will define what your company is about. If you’re not providing value, if you’re not solving a problem, then what are you really doing?
• You can’t be all things to everyone, so work on your focus. It’s hard, I know, you see everything around you taking off – surely you must pivot and try that instead, and yet this loss of focus is often your biggest detriment.

2. Position.

• You must position yourself to make good on the return from the value. Assume success, assume it kicks off, will you be prepared to capture it when it comes? This extends beyond your marketing and sales, think of your technology, your support entities. When it comes, it will come full force, are you well positioned to account for the real live stress tests?
• It’s at this point that you create the right time, the right place experience.

3. Capitalize.

• We’re not all building the next social network, search engine, photo sharing app or virtual reality technology. Yet, opportunities still exist; it’s what makes this entire process so freaking exciting.
• Use this period to not only reap the benefits, but take it as a moment for reflection to improve the cycle. How do you prepare for the next round? What additional value can you provide? What additional insights exist?

4. Repeat.

• This is not a linear process, but a cyclical one. While the value might be the constant in the process, the positioning and being able to capitalize will evolve with each variation.
• The first time you go through the cycle, you might catapult from 10 clients, to 50. The second time, 50 to 500, the third time, 500 to 5,000. The growth will be exponential, but only if you focus on the value and are able to deliver.
• You rarely recognize the success you seek in one cycle, and there is no recipe for how many it will take.

It’s because of this cycle that your success will get attributed to Luck and yet when you look back, you see very little luck and a shit load of work. That however is the beauty of what we do as business owners.

Next time someone tells you, Damn, must pay to be Lucky, look them in the eye and say, ***Nah brother, it pays to be good.***