I am lucky. In fact, I have always been lucky, ever since my childhood. I was born under a privileged Zodiac, in a privileged country and with privileged parents. My parents worked hard and built a successful local business. I followed my instincts and opted for advanced education rather than joining my parents’ business. My father had some regret over this but never blamed my brother and me for not taking over the family business.
I know that some people are worried about my situation and my prospects at 56. They do not really understand why I am not. Sometimes I tell them that I used to be like them. My epiphany arrived late 2013 / early 2014 when I realised that having a job can even be worse than not having a job. Before that moment, I would have called that idea preposterous. My job was my hobby and it also provided a huge income. What more could anyone want from life??
There was however no balance or symmetry in my life. My success in business masked a failure in my private life. Since a few years, my situation is the reverse. My success in private life (ie, growth) now masks a failure in business. My luxury problem is that I have never been happier in my life than right now. My fall-back plan has been arranged and will allow this situation to continue – if necessary. Hence, I feel lucky.
My deepest, darkest hours – more appropriately would however be years – have been a blessing in disguise. I must admit that this knowledge only came with hindsight. Nevertheless, I have always felt deep down that this period would arrive someday. Again with hindsight, I realise that my near melt-down was required following my unwillingness to change and to restore my balance. Strong (minded) people don’t change easily. It takes a lot of pressure to make them change.
My success and luck have not been random. I was given talents at birth for which I am grateful, every single day. Early on life, I have made a fundamental choice between g(o)od and (d)evil. I’m proud of my faith although its name is secondary to me (eg, Allah, God, Yahweh). I believe that everything will somehow fall into place someday. Until then I maximise the discovery of my new talents and continue to restore the balance in my life.
I don’t believe in people who claim that they are the sole architect of their success. Success is a team effort and also facilitated by other people whom may never even receive the credits for their efforts. However, success has many fathers while failure is often an orphan (proverb). Luck is often an invisible ingredient of success. “Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy”, a book by Cornell university professor of economics Robert H. Frank aims to visualise this invisible luck ingredient (eg, Amazon, Atlantic, FT, Princeton, QZ).
The topic of this blog is a follow-up on my 8 August 2016 blog: No pain, no gain, no change. Luck has played a very important part in my life and still does. Some may call it luck (lyrics, video) but I prefer to say that I’m blessed with good fortune as that makes more sense than random good luck. Each night, I have my talk with God (lyrics, video) and count my blessings.
Nas featuring Damian Marley – Count Your Blessings (2010)
artist 1, artist 2, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2, Wiki-3
And give thanks to the Master
That through all the disaster
We’re still here together after
Better count your blessings
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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