WHAT’S LUCK GOT TO DO WITH IT??

Have you ever had someone tell you ‘oh you were just lucky’ when in reality you worked your a$$ off for years and truly earned your results?

It can be rather jarring and frustrating and I used to feel a bit offended when people would tell me that.

I don’t anymore. I understand that their comment has more to do with them and having to justify why they haven’t achieved those results in their own life.

In fact, I now accept it as a compliment (even if they didn’t mean it that way).

Partly it’s because of the new definition for Luck that I got from my mentors several years ago:

Labour

Under

Correct

Knowledge

That Luck that people may chalk your results up to is actually from you doing the work (that most aren’t willing to do) after learning the correct knowledge others acquired and shared with you (that most aren’t willing to learn).

I know that while many were watching Dancing With The Stars for 3 straight hours, arguing online about who shot JFK, wandering the Mall for the 7th weekend in a row or killing time in some other mundane way, I was:

• on evening webinars learning about investing
• spending some of my weekends at in-person trainings to grow my knowledge
• watching/reading documentaries/books about financial booms, busts, titans and history
• looking at properties and attending sales presentations to get educated
• researching live and past opportunities to hone my skills
• saving $ for my next investment opportunity instead of spending it on the next new doodad
• spending time with people who had achieved the results I wished for and asking as many questions as possible
• taking courses, hiring Coaches, following Mentors

I was acquiring the ‘correct knowledge’ (although at the time it can be tough to differentiate between correct and incorrect knowledge, I’ll admit but that’s part of the learning).

AND…probably most importantly, I was APPLYING that correct knowledge by actually getting out there and taking action (10’s of millions of people have read Rich Dad Poor Dad…only thousands have actually done something with what they learned from it).

Now don’t get me wrong…I still binge TV now and then, watch sports, enjoy shopping (for a couple of hours then I’m done) and I’m not obsessed to the point of spending every waking moment on work and investments (that’s not Freedom either)…and I choose to spend a lot of my time on acquiring knowledge on investing and then…actually investing!

So now when people say ‘oh you got lucky’…in my mind I think ‘yup, I put in the hours needed to learn and then took action to get the results I currently have’. And I say ‘Thanks yeah…I’ve been very lucky”.

What do I expect people to say?

“Brian, you clearly used your time FAR more wisely than I did and while I have been working on my garden/shoe collection/baseball trivia/beer gut/celebrity gossip expertise, you were working on creating Financial Freedom for yourself and partners. Nice job!”

Not bloody likely…but that’s kinda what they are saying (again in my head) when they tell me how lucky I am.

There’s more to this ‘you got lucky’ experience though, as it’s often what you hear from those that were naysayers in the past when you were taking action.

I was reminded of this just today as I spoke to a good friend who is looking at an investment op and received some ‘advice’ from that group of people we (unfortunately) get the most advice from…Family, Friends and Fools.

Ok that’s a bit harsh. In MOST cases Family & Friends are just looking out for us. They want us to be safe and happy and they don’t want to see us get burned…and I get it.

But they themselves are often part of that group that is NOT willing to put in the time and effort to learn what needs to be learned and take the action required to see results.

They are often coming from a place of scarcity & fear and old paradigm thinking (which you can tell by the results in their life), even if they mean well.

They are more motivated by staying safe and not making mistakes. They desire comfort and usually choose caution. They also often harbour regret about opportunities that they let slip through their fingers.

And I’m sorry to say, they may struggle to see you creating the results in YOUR life that they secretly want in theirs. So just like crabs in a bucket they might unconsciously reach up and pull you down as you appear to be making your way out to Freedom (without them)…

If I had a $ for every person that warned me and told me I was nuts for pretty much every investment I’ve done…I wouldn’t have to invest!

Then, years later when they find out it exceeded my expectations…well that’s when the Lucky comment comes out.

Did they all turn out? Of course not nobody bats 1000. Sometimes actual luck was involved…and you have to be in the game to enjoy Luck when it arrives!

To those folks, who may never take the time to learn what needs to be learned and take the action that is required to take, my results will be because of Luck.

They have to justify it somehow.

And I choose to take it as an acknowledgment and compliment for all the time & energy I put in (that most people are not willing to do).

So…are you feeling Lucky??