Improve Your Luck

Success is only a matter of luck. Just ask any failure. It’s easy to become discouraged. All you have to do is turn on the TV and listen to the news reports of layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, manufacturers shutting down plants and moving them out of the country. Wars. Budget deficit. National debt. Cultural strife. People lashing out at one another, strangers arguing with strangers on social media. We just can’t seem to get along with one another any more.

What can you do about any of it?

On a global scale, probably nothing. We each have to learn to rely upon ourselves, and make our own way in the world. Not to say that it is acceptable to screw over the other guy. Just saying, you have to take ownership of your own life, take care of yourself first, do and be the best you can, and then others will benefit as well.

When you travel, as you listen to the flight attendant’s safety briefing before takeoff, she or he will always tell you that if the oxygen mask comes down, it is important that you put yours on first.

Only then do you try to help the person next to you. You can’t help someone else when you are in a desperate situation yourself.

My dad, Raleigh Baker, who I appreciated more in his later years than I did when I was growing up, and miss more than words can describe now that he is gone, once told me, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

Another way of saying it was expressed by Jack Graham, a successful businessman who employed me for several years as his personal pilot. He said, “You make your own luck.”

I personally benefited from the “Improve Your Luck” philosophy in my flying career. I started out as a teenager, sweeping hangar floors and fueling airplanes. I soon started taking flying lessons. It took a lot of years, some low-paying jobs with lousy schedules and unappreciative bosses. And there were a lot of missed birthdays and anniversaries, not to mention Christmas celebrations with my family, but I stuck with it and eventually ended up flying as Captain of a Boeing 767. I didn’t listen to all the people who told me I couldn’t do it. I just didn’t quit. I kept going. That made all the difference. When my opportunity came, I was ready. 

You make your own luck and improve it by working hard. As you gain more and more experience, you make contacts, get to know people in the industry, and your luck improves. You still live in the same world as everyone else, play by the same basic rules, pay your taxes, etc. But, you don’t allow the world to dictate your life.

I am not promoting a get rich quick scheme. I leave that to the people who run their infomercials on late-night television. What I offer are a few thoughts for you—and me—to consider. Things for us to keep in mind as we make our decisions. I wish you well. Work hard. Make your own luck.

 

1 Life is a series of tests.

If you pass them, there will of course be even more tests to come, but you will be functioning, competing, and playing at a higher level, complete with the rewards that go along with playing in the big leagues.

When you step into the batter’s box in the major leagues you can expect to be facing the best of the best. You will see a lot of fastballs and some wicked curve balls. If you don’t learn to hit the fastballs and the curves, you aren’t going to make it to the big leagues.

Oh, and yes, sometimes life does throw at your head. You get brushed back. You get knocked down. You get hit sometimes. It hurts.

It’s what happens after that, what you do about it, that determines your destiny.

2 Pay yourself first.

Whether it is money, or time. Pay yourself first.

Invest in what is best for you. With whatever is left, do the things that others require of you.

At this point in my life, why would I do anything that does not contribute toward my happiness, toward achieving the things that are really important to me?

3 Stack the deck in your favor.

Winners are able to look themselves in the mirror. Winners know the art of winning. Success leaves clues. Do the things that winners do. Imitate what works for them. Win the fight one battle at a time. Choose your battles. Fight on your own turf.

Keep the sun in the enemy’s eyes. Stack the deck in your favor. Make your own luck.

4 Winners are self-reliant.

Winners assess themselves and make adjustments.

You can specialize in improving your weakness, or you can specialize in being weak.

Winners are self-reliant. Winners embrace the philosophy of “If it is to be, it is up to me.”

If you could have one friend who was knowledgeable and capable of making your hopes and dreams come true, why not be that friend to yourself? Don’t wait for someone else to help you. Make your own luck.

5 Your luck will drastically improve when you take ownership of your personal success.

Take it upon yourself to educate, inform, and train yourself in the matters that affect your success. Take it upon yourself to do those things which will attract success.

If you do not get it from yourself, where will you look for it?”

6 Winners take charge of themselves.

Winners make their own luck. You will be beholden to no one when you become your own best ally, the one whose knowledge and judgment is best in tune with your needs.

7 Whatever it takes.

Pay whatever the price—because it’s worth it—and besides, you can’t take it with you anyway. The price of success is not negotiable. If you limit what you are willing to pay, you also limit the payoff.

8 Never settle for ordinary.

Winners are not satisfied with an ordinary life. Go get it. Take it.

9 Winners find a way.

Find a way to do it when you don’t feel like doing it.

Find a way to do it when others try to convince you that you cannot.

Find a way to do it when circumstances are against you.

You may find that you have to do things you never imagined necessary. Or possible. Be flexible. Like the palm tree, be strong enough to bend.

10 “The harder I work, the luckier I get,”

my father used to tell me.

Success is a matter of luck. Just ask any failure.

If I’m the one who puts in the work that no one else is willing to do, I will be the “lucky” one who reaps the rewards. I will put in weeks, months, years to put myself in position to be an “overnight success”.

11 Learn to perform under pressure.

Can you do it when it counts?

Can you do it when the conditions are not just right?

Practice when the conditions are not just right, so that when it counts, you can do it even if the conditions are not just right. Train for and during adversity.

12 The source of your luck can be found in your mirror.

“One’s future, one’s luck, depends upon a lot of things, but more than anything else, upon oneself.”

13 Consistency

“You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event—it’s a habit.” Aristotle

Winning is not a result of luck. It is a result of preparation.

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Elanor Roosevelt

14 No fear

Nothing can govern you other than fear. Knowledge does away with fear. When you overcome fear, you are no longer enslaved by another’s wishes. You are free to live on your own. Have you ever known a fearful “lucky” person?

15 You can’t stay still.

You are either doing it or you are not doing it. You are either moving toward or away from your target at all times.

What are you doing right now? Which way are you moving?

What are the top 1% doing? That is what you should also be doing.

Do one more thing than your circumstances or opponents do.

16 It’s not free.

If you want it, you have to pay for it. You have to be hungry. It’s not free and it’s not easy.