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May 24th

MAKING YOUR OWN GOOD FORTUNE

“You say, good fortune used to meet you at every corner. But the

fortunate person is the one who gives themselves a good fortune.

And good fortunes are a well-tuned soul, good impulses and good

actions.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.36

hat is the more productive notion of good luck? One that is defined
by totally random factors outside your control, or a matter of
probability that can be increased—though not guaranteed—by the right
decisions and the right preparation? Obviously, the latter. This is why
successful yet mysteriously “lucky” people seem to gravitate toward it.
According to the wonderful site Quote Investigator, versions of this idea
date back at least to the sixteenth century in the proverb “Diligence is the
mother of good luck.” In the 1920s, Coleman Cox put a modern spin on it
by saying, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I
seem to have.” (That saying has been incorrectly attributed to Thomas
Jefferson, who said nothing of the kind.) Today, we say, “Luck is where
hard work meets opportunity.” Or is it typically flipped?
Today, you can hope that good fortune and good luck magically come
your way. Or you can prepare yourself to get lucky by focusing on doing
the right thing at the right time—and, ironically, render luck mostly
unnecessary in the process.