by James Byrd
I'm a Seth Godin fan. I don't agree with everything he says, but I love reading his blog because it is often thought-provoking. His post from yesterday is no exception:
The Difficult Choice
In his blog entry, Seth responds to a critic of The Dip, his book that "teaches you when to quit." The critic claims that Seth doesn't allow enough for the role of luck in the story of companies and people who become successful.
Seth's response is that either you believe in luck, in which case, why bother trying? Or, you believe that luck is random, in which case you just focus on the things you can control.
Okay. Perhaps there's a third option: you make your own luck.
I don't believe in luck much personally. I think luck is a self-fulfilling superstition. If you believe you are unlucky, you will ignore the opportunities that life sets before you, and guess what? You live an unlucky life!
At every moment of every day, your life intersects with the lives of others in time and space. Every one of those intersections is an opportunity for change of some kind. If you walk through life with your focus on yourself and how unfairly life has treated you, it is tough to be alert to opportunities that can let you create a new history for yourself.
The good news is I believe that you can change your luck today. Someone once said that every day is the first day of the rest of your life. If today is just like yesterday, then you are the one who makes it that way.
Take a moment to think about where you'd like to be rather than lamenting where you've been or where you are. If you do that, your mind will be more receptive to opportunities when they present themselves.
The tricky part is having the courage to act on those opportunities when you recognize them.
posted @ Tuesday, August 12, 2008 6:37 AM