Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog! I hope you are feeling good and super excited to read another one of my writings. As you can see from the title, today we are going to talk about three different things: Opportunity, Preparation, and Luck. You may not understand the choice of words but hang in there, I’ll walk you through it.
A while ago, a friend posted the picture below on her WhatsApp status. The minute I saw it, I had to quickly take a screenshot, because I knew that it would eventually be a great topic for one of my next articles. Take a minute to look at it, and then come back to continue with the reading. Done? Perfect! Let’s continue. As you can see in the picture, there’s obviously a kind of graph where two lines are crossing one another, and underneath, a simple sentence that resumes it all : “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
What do you think it means? I took some time to think about it. Back when I was in high school, I had a priest as my “Bible study” teacher. One day he gave us an unexpected exam. It was just one question, a simple, yet very complex sentence, that has been in my mind ever since. “Do you think that us , as humans, are in charge of our own destiny or was everything already written/planned by God?” I’ll leave it up to you to think about the answer.
I’m one of those who don’t believe in luck (in some situations). You might then wonder why I am writing an article about it. Well, I made some research about this quote and the person to whom it is attributed to is called Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher. According to him, we make our own luck.
Most of the times, we are always waiting/looking for opportunities. The ones, like me who are believers, take some time to pray for opportunities, and in the meantime wait for them happen. For example, when we apply for a job, we get ready to pass the interview, and once we are done with this step, we just wait. What do we do to get ready for the job? (Besides buying work outfits and dreaming about the multiple ways we are going to spend that salary😅)? Do we try to learn new things? Work on our weaknesses?…. I’m guessing for most of us, the answer would be something similar to “We wait for the phone call that will announce us that we got the job”.
Someone on Twitter made a comment about the reference picture and said “Think of it like a goal is scored in a soccer game….” The players prepare themselves by training before the big day. During the game, their previous preparations meet with opportunities and boom, luck happens⚽️, they score. That is almost how it should be for us too. We should always prepare ourselves/train for any opportunity that should present itself to us. Once they manifest, our preparations will allow us to give the best of ourselves and attract something positive. That little piece of positivity, of success, is what I would consider as “Luck”. A luck that is the sweet fruit of hard work.
Nevertheless, I think that there might be opportunities that you try to seize, and even with preparations, do not bring luck. That doesn’t mean that it’s “bad luck”. I do believe that not all opportunities are meant to be seized. Sometimes opportunities are presented to us but they do not align with what we are currently doing. Some may be seen as trial tests, to get us ready, others may also be traps, and we should pass on them. The right ones will be the ones who create that explosion of “luck”.
Sadly, in the Haitian culture, when we get to witness someone’s “luck” in full display, we often hear people stay stuffs to minimize their accomplishments. For example , in a workplace, when employees get promoted, if it’s a woman, you’ll definitely hear degrading rumors about her. Maybe while people were too busy gossiping about her private life, she was out there getting ready for when that opportunity is presented to her.
Lastly, I just want to add that some opportunities may come up without you being prepared for them, and exceptionally you might find yourself excelling. Yes, preparation doesn’t guarantee success but without it, your chance of getting lucky may not be that high.
So, after reading this article, what will you do to prepare yourself for future opportunities?
That’s my cue for today! Thank you for reading and sharing my articles as usual. If you’re in Haïti, stay strong and hang in there. Until we meet again guys, stay safe and be blessed… always!!!