Lessons in Luck

I went to a funeral today.

I had learned a very valuable lesson from this man years before and wanted to say thanks and pay my respects. Back when I was younger and more aggressive I read quite a few books on self-improvement and charting your destiny. I had begun to believe that we make our own luck, that we controlled our circumstances by attracting into our lives people and events according to our attitudes and habits.

Then my friend Walt lost his daughter. She was the light of his life, young and beautiful with everything to live for. She was killed by a drunk driver while parked at a stoplight. A short while after that the company he worked for laid off their entire workforce. All of this happening to one of the most honest and friendly folks I ever met. A dedicated family man, a veteran who served his country, worked hard and never had a bad word to say about anyone.

It was a great lesson for me, I threw away the motivational books I had been reading and witnessed a real person work their way back from some of life’s toughest blows. The thought that this man had made his own luck was an absurdity. He took a job that I had just left and we spoke often for a few years afterwards. I watched him work his way back from despair slowly over time. Eventually he found other reasons to be happy and lived well for another couple of decades.

I will always think about him anytime I hear about someone making their own luck, I just don’t buy it. He made the best of his life, but luck did not have much to do with it.