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Guest Article
Category: Success
Luck seems to
have a peculiar attachment to work. I'm sure that you have heard the Dave Thomas quote: "It seems
the harder I work, the luckier I get."
I would tend to
agree with that statement, but I think there are a few other conditions that affect your "luck" --
things like instinct, timing, market conditions, and public opinion, to name a few. I know plenty
of folks that have worked their heads and hearts off, but for some reason or another, they just
aren't successful in what they accomplish.
On the other
hand, I have witnessed others who seem to have fallen into a bed of roses -- businesswise or
financially. Predictably, most of their friends are totally amazed and can't figure out how or why
this person made it. Pure luck? Probably not. More likely, they were in the right business at the
right time. Oh, we should all be so "lucky."
Call it whatever
you like, but I prefer not to rely on luck when it comes to business. I leave that for Las Vegas.
I'll admit, I've
been "lucky" on many occasions, such as the time I was in London many years ago and was late for a
play. I started to step off the curb without looking to my right. I pulled back for a reason I
still can't explain. Being in London, where they drive on the "wrong" side of the road, a big bus
almost wiped me out. Go figure it! Had I taken that step, I would have been dead within a
nanosecond. I would bet that most of us could tell a similar story.
What is the
correlation between luck and success? Frankly, I think Dave Thomas, who founded the Wendy's chain,
had it right. As for my business life, I prefer to do everything in my power to make my own "luck"
-- long hours, clear goals, calculated risks, good hires, expert advice, and a reasonable amount of
fear have guided me.
I've had plenty
of incentive too, like putting my name on my product. Nothing makes you try harder than putting
your identity on the line.
Was it luck that
led to the creation of so many well-known products? I think not. Rather, it was creativity and the
courage to redevelop already invented products. For example, Coca-Cola started out as a headache
medicine. Post-it Notes originated when a 3M inventor created bookmarks for his prayer/song book.
Levi jeans -- with rivets instead of buttons -- were made out of leftover tent canvas when miners
needed pants.
Speaking of
leftovers, that's how the Swanson TV dinner was created. It was Thanksgiving 1952 and the Swanson
Company had 260 tons of leftover turkeys. The company filled 10 refrigerated boxcars and let the
frozen turkeys ride around the country until they figured out what to do with their fowl problem. A
salesman developed a three-compartment tray for the frozen turkey and two side dishes because he
remembered from his Army days how he hated when his food ran together. Management gobbled up the
idea. So did Swanson's customers.
Ice cream sodas
were invented not so much by luck as by necessity. In 1874, 16 years after the first soda fountain
opened, Robert M. Green was mixing his popular drink, consisting of sweet cream, syrup, and
carbonated water. When he ran out of sweet cream and there was no way to get more that day, he
started substituting vanilla ice cream, hoping no one would notice. Everyone noticed -- and he went
from grossing $6 a day to $600.
Yo-yos were used
as weapons in the ancient Far East. Sixteenth century hunters in the Philippine Islands tied wooden
disks together with a long piece of rope or twine. They would sit in trees and fling the weapon at
prey. If it missed, they would pull it back quickly and try again. Donald Duncan saw the yo-yo in
action in the early 1920s, changed the design, and created a child's toy, my grandson's favorite
possession.
Even Avon
Cosmetics got its start when a door-to-door book salesman named David H. McConnell decided to offer
a small sample of perfume to women. Soon the perfume became more popular than the books and
McConnell established the California Perfume Company, which changed its name to Avon Products in
1939.
Lucky? No. Good
business. Taking risks, being creative, and reading and reacting to markets will trump luck every
day. You can bet on that.
Mackay's
Moral:Good luck usually depends on
good judgment.
[Ed. Note: Harvey
Mackay has written five New York
Times bestselling books, two of which were named among the top 15 inspirational
business books of all time -- Swim With the
Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive andBeware the Naked Man Who Offers You His
Shirt. His latest book, Use
Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell
You, was released Feb. 18. Harvey is a nationally syndicated
columnist and has been named one of the top five speakers in the world by Toastmasters
International. He is also chairman of the $100 million MackayMitchell Envelope Company, a
company he started in 1960.
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