Do you ever have trouble discerning whether you’ve just received a lucky break or that all of your hard work is amounting to this stroke of kismet?
A friend of mine used the expression, “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” which answers that question for me. Yes, surprising opportunities can arise out of the blue, but it’s preparedness that allows opportunities to mount up and propel the trajectory.
I got that rush of excitement a week ago when someone who’d heard my @trimqueen interview on Instagram TV asked to write about me in a textile magazine. After pinching myself for this good fortune, I examined how my efforts had led to this occasion.
For starters, I made a list of 100 things I’ve done to ‘get lucky’ since I started Jane Pollak Designs shortly after the pandemic and quarantine changed lives everywhere last March. I had no trouble making the list as I am one action-taking person. After writing them all down, I categorized them to see where I spent most of my time.
Here are the categories I created in order of how many ‘things’ fell into each:
- Education/Research
- Promotion – Marketing
- Hiring help
- Networking
- Creation
- Maintaining Optimism/Spirit
- Asking for help and/or making requests of people
- Following up (tied for #7)
- Production – this was ongoing, but the heading only rated 5 entries
- Inspiration
This makes sense according to the saying (attributed to Thomas Edison), “1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
The nice thing about this list, for me especially, is that it will inform my next several blog posts as I share my learning. Looks like a good formula for anyone wanting to get lucky.
Reminds me of the quote from the famous South African golf player, Gary Player, who said “The more I practice, the luckier I get”.