“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

– Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

Do you believe in chance?  How about luck?  Do you think that some people succeed just because they were in the right place at the right time or they were just lucky?  I don’t believe that.  I do not believe that most Success-Minded People believe that either.  Success-Minded People are all too aware that their success and the success of others came from hard work and strategic deliberate action.  Ed Bradley, one of the hosts of the news program 60 Minutes, put it this way: “Be prepared, work hard and hope for a little luck.  Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have.”

 NO ACCIDENT

I have always held to the belief that nothing happens in life by accident.  God in His great wisdom and power has a plan for you and I and everything that happens, every person we meet will direct us to the fulfillment of that plan.  As Success-Minded People I hope you do not allow yourself to bring up the old, “But why are there starving children and suffering in the world” question.  Let me simply say (and there is no simple answer to this) that God may direct our lives but it does not mean we follow His direction.  Sin and suffering is in the world because of our own rebellious hearts not Gods.  But this question is not the issue here, it never is the issue.  People use that as something to avoid the issue.  If it really mattered to them they would be doing something about it.

 OPPORTUNITIES EVERYWHERE

Success-Minded People know that you succeed by looking at what you can do not at what you cannot do.  In life we really have very little luck in terms of success.  What we do have are opportunities.  We have thousands of them every day.  Every person you meet offers you an opportunity to learn, grow and move forward.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.”  All you need to do to take advantage of these opportunities is to be open, ready and willing to move at the moment you need to.

 READY TO MOVE

Here is an example: I believe that each person I meet can and does add value to my life.  I don’t know who they are or what they do, but I am open to finding out.  When I get to know them and see that they may be the door of opportunity for me or that I may offer them an opportunity I am ready to move.  My life has been enriched so many times over because I did not allow someone to pass unnoticed in my life.

Benjamin Franklin said, “To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”  See each person in your life as possibly the very person who will change the world.  See each event as the next stepping stone to your success.  Live life with excitement and enthusiasm and you will see that “luck” is always at your door.  “If you have zest and enthusiasm” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said, “you will attract zest and enthusiasm.  Life does give back in kind.”

© 2011 John Patrick Hickey