Is today your lucky day? Of course it is! We feel that way every day here at Eclaro, although some days have us reflecting on the concepts of luck than others.
Friday the 13th has been associated with bad luck for thousands of years, but we see it as just another day filled with good fortune (well, unless you’re watching Friday the 13th Part VII: Jason Takes Manhattan). We consider ourselves lucky to work our clients and partners, and to work with one another, each and every day. But since we get a Friday the 13th in October only 56 times every 400 years, we feel extra lucky today!
To celebrate, we took to our Five on Friday “Engage Evolve Excel” platform to present a gathering of business leaders, innovators, classic thinkers and writers, and some self-made success stories across industries and the ages, whose perspectives on luck can inspire all of us in the workplace, on the home front and anywhere in between.
“Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose,” said none other than Ralph Waldo Emerson. As with so many rungs on the ladder to success, one’s concept of luck—and whether we perceive it as good or bad—says a great deal about how much of it will come your way. And for those of you who succumb to paraskevidekatriaphobia…
“Whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it’s a good thing,” Taylor Swift once said. Who are we to argue?
Engage
“The day you decide to do, it is your lucky day.”—Japanese Proverb
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”—Seneca the Younger
"I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life."—Steve Jobs
“Chance favors the prepared mind.“—Louis Pasteur
“Luck is the residue of design.“—Branch Rickey
Evolve
"I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."—Thomas Jefferson
"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."—Ray Kroc
“Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.”—Serena Williams
“I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it… The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.”—Samuel Goldwyn
“What helps luck is a habit of watching for opportunities, of having a patient but restless mind, of sacrificing one’s ease or vanity, or uniting a love of detail to foresight, and of passing through hard times bravely and cheerfully.”—Victor Cherbuliez
Excel
"No one has as much luck around the greens as one who practices a lot."—Chi Chi Rodriguez
“Don’t be confused by what looks like luck to you. Lucky people don’t make successful people; people who completely commit themselves to success seem to get lucky in life.”—Grant Cardone
"Most entrepreneurs will admit luck plays a part in success."—Richard Branson
"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises."—Demosthenes
"If you hadn't been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn't have been lucky."—Oprah Winfrey
Explore
“Luck, bad if not good, will always be with us. But it has a way of favoring the intelligent and showing its back to the stupid."—John Dewey
“There is no luck except where there is discipline.”—Irish Proverb
“It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.”—Baltasar Gracian
“Luck affects everything. Let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”—Ovid
“It’s hard to detect good luck – it looks so much like something you’ve earned.”—Frank A. Clark
Etcetera: Do you believe that we make our own luck? These folks agree…
"The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself."—Douglas Macarthur
“In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn
“You have to create your own luck. You have to be aware of the opportunities around you and take advantage of them.”—Bruce Lee
"A big part of making your own luck is charging out of the gate every day.'"—Tom Brokaw
"When it comes to luck you make your own."—Bruce Springsteen