My mother’s high school yearbook quote was “Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation” (yet more proof she has always been wise). The reason I specifically quote her is because I have recently learned what luck truly is.
Luck is not finding a four-leaf clover and luck is not wearing a rabbits foot around your neck (thank goodness that went out of fashion). Luck is something that occurs when you have laid down all the puzzle pieces and formed a complete picture. For that puzzle to be completed you need to carefully organize and place each piece in its proper location. This takes time and analysis. When all that hard work is complete, your puzzle is complete too. Luck (as defined by society) is opening a puzzle box and it falls out in one, complete picture (this just plum doesn’t happen).
Apply this puzzle situation to real life, my life for example, since that is the one I have to most expertise in. Every job and activity I have ever accomplished was a separate puzzle piece I laid down. Individually the pieces look like nothing, but when I started to look at the whole picture, and not just each piece, a picture started to form. My leadership experiences showed me I have management skills and my work in sales and promotions showed me I had marketing skills. Separately all those experiences looked like merely odd jobs and activities to occupy my time, but it truth they were all puzzle pieces for my new career (yes, Samantha got a big girl job) as a marketing manager.
If we take the previous quote, “luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation”, and apply it to my situation, then we can look at as if all my odd jobs and activities were preparation and this job was an opportunity. Together I guess I got lucky, but this “luck” didn’t come without lots and lots of hard preparation and a good opportunity.