Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?

My dad valued luck. I have fond childhood memories of him backing the car out of our garage on warm spring evenings and unfolding the ping pong table. We would go at it for hours sometimes. Dad had an uncanny knack for hitting the ball to the very end of the table so that it was virtually unreturnable, bouncing it off my edge at an absurdly obtuse angle that was inevitably followed by a hands and knees search for the ball. Each and every time he would accomplish this (and they were legion), he would say “I’d rather be lucky than good any time.”

Napoleon, too, realized the value of luck. It was one of the key attributes he looked for in his top soldiers and aids. During interviews, he would ask his top candidates “are you lucky?” If you weren’t familiar with Napoleon’s genius, it would seem like an odd question, perhaps illuminating a superstitious streak, but Napoleon realized that those who are (or appear to be) lucky seem to experience success in greater quantities than their opposites. There is something about luck.

And this is because “luck” is generally not purely chance. Sure, sometimes you look down and happen upon a $5 on the ground, but more often than not you find that, as Pasteur said, “luck favors the prepared.” The ones who are lucky on projects (or life) did not just happen blindly upon some favored opportunity. Instead, they were ready for opportunity when it presented itself. Some people called Captian Sullenberger “lucky”, but as he put it, his whole life was spent training for the day he safely landed Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. He was prepared, and therefore neither he nor his passengers were a statistic that day.

During the French and Indian War, George Washington developed a reputation as the luckiest soldier of all. He would return from a charge with his coat riddled with bullet holes, so that many of the French and even some American soldiers began to adhere to the superstition that Washington himself was actually bulletproof. The truth is, some leaders just seem to come across as indestructible. Things always seem to fall their way. They wind up with the best team. They are able to produce a miracle at just the right time. Their risks are rewarded. Things just work out for them.

Branch Ricky, the famous baseball manager, once stated, “luck is the residue of design.” The best leaders made success look like luck the same way that Fred Astaire made dancing look effortless, or Babe Ruth made his home runs look like he was hardly trying. The work, the training, and the luck all seem to blend together. The truth is that on a project, as in other areas of life, repeatedly doing the right things the right way will pay off over time. Integrity, good decisions, and good leadership will always catch up with you. All of us are naturally drawn to lucky leaders because deep down we all know it has very little to do with luck.