Redefining Luck
Another short story on the currency of success.
Hey, y’all, thank you for being here still!
Today’s piece is largely inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. It’s nothing you don’t know or rather, it’s nothing knew but at a point at which it’s neither those two pleas enjoy.
I’m writing this because I need to hear it.
We all love a rags to riches story; the story about that one kid who grew up in the projects, in the worst parts of the ghetto, fighting to make ends meet with all the odds skewed against them and yet, they conquered it all and now stand before the worlds largest crowds; at the Oscars or Grammys, with heartfelt tears and uncontainable joys of having realized the dream they recall having had from a tender age. The story of rising from the ashes to mingling and dining with the rich of this world, in their extravagant castle-like mansions and becoming the new inspiration, a message of hope that ‘success’ is possible. For the rest of us, glued to our screens, mindlessly scrolling our days through Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, we only forever envision echoing the same chorus one day. We forever wish to look back and thank ourselves for having done the work that took us to the top. But how?
Given the plethora of motivational speakers constantly clamouring about hard work and no days off, can we safely say the formula for success is simply just hard work and hard work until the mountain we are attempting to climb falls or, maybe, everyone who we consider self-made just happened to come upon luck or fortune as it may? Of course, this evokes the need to define luck and its possible intersectionality with success. Because, in all the self-made stories, the part that is often not highlighted is that, beyond the hard work, pain and sacrifices there was an opportunity acted upon and that opportunity may likely have been a question of mere luck.
In all the definitions of luck, the defining term or theme is chance. The idea is that it so happens independent of one’s efforts. This is true probably for people born into already wealthy families or having inherited large amounts of fortune from family estates. Well, good for them but these are not the cases up for consideration today. As Malcolm Gladwell states in Outliers, those who rose from humble beginnings to the echelons of the world’s biggest stages were ordinary individuals given a stage to shine.
“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them,” he writes. The premise of the book is that it is impossible for Bill Gates, Elon Musk or any other ‘outlier’ to look down from their lofty perch and say with truthfulness, “I did this, all by myself.” They are all products of history and community of opportunity and legacy.
So what is luck? In the words of Nick Cannon, who I can’t believe I’m quoting, “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.” I’m a hundred per cent sure that someone else said that first. I digress. In other words, success is a product of hard work and opportunity(luck). Opportunities are awarded to us in different forms and, contrary to popular belief, it does make a difference —in the grand scheme of the question of success, where and how we are born, bred and nurtured. The demography we belong to, our geography of birth, our upbringing, culture, beliefs, societal laws and education et al, all those are very important factors to one’s path towards success. “It is not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words,” writes Malcolm Gladwell. “It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.“
“Biologists often talk about the “ecology” of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds. But do we know enough about the sunlight that warmed them, then the soil in which they put down the roots, and the rabbits and lumberjacks they were lucky enough to avoid?”
If Bill Gates had not been sent to Lakeside, one of the few schools that could afford a computer, maybe we wouldn’t have known the Bill Gates we know today. Imagine having to do real-time programming as an eighth grader in 1968. I wonder what his agemates in Africa were doing in class by then. Sure, one can fight the circumstances that may be working against them, and rise above all odds, but I think it is important for the individual to consider all these factors of identity, both positive or negative and create a rubric of self-criticism that is impartial and not harsh to the self.
It should not seem as if all is lost because of the differences in the opportunities that arise for every one of us. It is true that never in our wildest dreams can we be able to get some of the opportunities that come upon some of our counterparts whom we admire on our way to the top. But, what if the fabric of reality can be altered and chance can be created? Like making fire during the Stone Age, what if we can create luck? In this context, redefine luck.
See, the stories of all the successful people we can think of are a culmination of events that eventually led to a big break. They all found work that became their obsession and were willing to do it consistently every day. From that function, stemmed hard work: constantly grinding on their craft over and over and over again, for a multitude of years, putting their work and themselves out into the world with the faith that it would materialize into something huge. An act that translates to one of the oldest ideas transcending time; compounding.
Compounding is there in the investing portfolios of Warren Buffet, it’s imprinted in the paintings of Picasso, in the music catalogues of the Beatles, Beyonce or your favourite musician. It's the bedrock to mastery behind the scenes of our greatest movie stars and billionaires. “The consistency of work,” echoed one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kobe Bryant. “Monday, get better, Tuesday, get better, Wednesday get better, and you do that over some time, not like one month or two months but three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten years then you get to where you want to go.” That’s where the magic simply happens. Consistency is the preparation and also the thing that draws one closer to the bigger goal.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell spells it out as the 10,000-hour rule. When we come to know about our biggest inspirations, they have probably been at it for a very long period, grinding in the trenches, having fun and experimenting such that when they eventually got the opportunity to shine they had the experience of thousands of hours. I find this true especially for little kids like Christiano Ronaldo who, from a very young age, were always playing soccer to the point that some things about it became second nature and mere instinct to them.
For my favourite podcasts and YouTubers, I like to go on their channels or social media accounts, scroll to the bottom and marvel at how far they’ve come. If they never delete their former work or pictures, it’s beautiful to see the growth in real-time, before the quality of videos were good, changing video background, adding on newer equipment, growing together as a couple, and making friends in the same industry and the rest is history. It’s like watching bloopers of your favourite TV show. It makes our superheroes and stars more human and far from the high pedestal we now hold them at. Above all, it just shows you that there’s room to create opportunity and luck for yourself the same way they may have. Just being present today, tomorrow and in the coming years.
One of the key takeaways from Austin Kleon’s book Show Your Work is that work must be done every day for a very long period and that work must be shared with the people. Music in hard drives is only good in the hard drive and doesn’t increase the chances of getting fans for it. It becomes important that creative ways are found to share our work and anticipate great criticism for it. All the great people in society had to pass that stage. It is only when we have shared great, quality work, sometimes for many years, that we increase the chances for chance. It is that consistency of work that takes us to avenues of potential that we’ve never been to. It is that everyday growth that creates connections with like-minded individuals. It is in the great work we produce, through the perpetual hammering every day, that we open doors for ourselves. It’s there in all the self-help books. All the greats had some version of this path. It was encapsulated with maybe supportive friends and family or circumstances being run from. At the end of it all, assuming it does even end, fulfilment arises from that work. Sometimes, if we’re very fortunate, we become the next big star. Now, can we not say that luck can be created?
I hate to sound like I'm becoming a motivational writer, however, I always find myself in need of this reminder constantly, that it’s possible to create luck and rise above our low estates to lands that we promise ourselves. So, while we’re at it; creating goals, designing systems, aspiring and hoping it’s imperative to listen to the silence once in a while, forget the digital noise of the world and put in the necessary work. The beauty in all of it is that there’s a possibility of falling in love with ourselves and finding true meaning devoid of the material wealth and external invalidating voices of this world.
This is just plain monotony to a message already out there or at the back of our heads but I hope there’s something worth taking away from all of this repetitiveness.
Let us go and create luck!
Aluta Continua.