Luck Favors the Prepared Mind

Jeffrey Blum wrote a fascinating book, “How to Get Lucky.” He points out that luck can be made to happen. As Louis Pasteur said, “Luck favors the prepared mind.”

You have to work very hard to get lucky. You must think and concentrate on good luck. You create positive and optimistic thoughts.

Louis Nizer was one of the nation’s most highly esteemed trial attorneys. He was once asked if there was such a thing as luck in trial law. “Yes, but it only comes in the library at three o’clock in the morning while I’m doing my research.”

All of my successful fundraisers spoke about the good fortune they have. Luck seems to follow them.

It isn’t inadvertent. They plan for it and seek it. They live by serendipity. The great fundraisers have the faculty of being precisely at the right place at exactly the right time. What assures luck is eternal vigilance to new opportunities, a restless spirit, and an irreverent attitude for the obvious.

You may be familiar with the old Latin aphorism: “Fortune favors the bold.” As a group, lucky people tend to be bold. Vartan Gregorian told me: “I’ve been one of the luckiest people alive. Everything that has happened to me has been by sheer luck and happenstance. I work hard, have above average intelligence, and believe I understand people. But luck has controlled my life.”