What is luck? And - - are you lucky?

Tombstone · Post by **Tombstone** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:25 pm

I've always admired Thomas Jefferson quotes. One of my favorites is his comment about luck:

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

Mark Twain had an appropriate thing to say about the subject of luck as well:

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident. ~Mark Twain

Frank Clark once said: It's hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you've earned.

So how about you? Do you believe in luck? Or is it a matter of hard work and perserverence? Do you find yourself as being lucky, or not?

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:26 pm

Good question Tombstone..

I believe in LUCK, but it seems I have none. I do know people that seem to have all the luck in the world. I on the other hand have to struggle and work very hard to just maintain. I guess I have some luck. I have a great family, friends and my jobs not so bad.

SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST LUCKIER THAN OTHERS.. :-3

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:37 pm

it's all a matter of HOW you see it, as Carla points out....bad luck, i have sustained some huge financial loses since 1995. however....i did not die on dec. 18 when i had a heart attack. my kids are healthy. i have lifelong friends and new friends as well. i have the love of a wonderful man. i lost my mom and dad :-1 , but have my sister and brother and healthy kids who are good people. what is luck? if you weren't born in a war or famine-ravaged place, if you are sitting in your own place at a computer instead of living under a bridge, i'd say that is luck. and not all the credit goes to hard work, a lot of that is pure Grace of God.

jahamaa · Post by **jahamaa** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:22 pm

lady cop wrote: it's all a matter of HOW you see it, as Carla points out....bad luck, i have sustained some huge financial loses since 1995. however....i did not die on dec. 18 when i had a heart attack. my kids are healthy. i have lifelong friends and new friends as well. i have the love of a wonderful man. i lost my mom and dad :-1 , but have my sister and brother and healthy kids who are good people. what is luck? if you weren't born in a war or famine-ravaged place, if you are sitting in your own place at a computer instead of living under a bridge, i'd say that is luck. and not all the credit goes to hard work, a lot of that is pure Grace of God.

AMEN!! :-6

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:19 pm

Tombstone wrote: I've always admired Thomas Jefferson quotes. One of my favorites is his comment about luck:

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

Mark Twain had an appropriate thing to say about the subject of luck as well:

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident. ~Mark Twain

Frank Clark once said: It's hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you've earned.

So how about you? Do you believe in luck? Or is it a matter of hard work and perserverence? Do you find yourself as being lucky, or not?
I definitely believe in luck. And the only kind i have is bad. Well not always. but I have never won a draw in a pot of ten. We used to put a dollar in a pot of ten on ball games. I never won ever. But I actually am ahead in scratchoffs.

hotsauce · Post by **hotsauce** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:43 pm

i say work ethic plays a HUGE role in how lucky one is. just last weekend i was kicking the hubs' tail in pool..."you got lucky he said". me..."funny the more i practice the luckier i get".

i have a hard time feeling sorry for people who say this...this...this...this...and this happened...poor me. i don't have time for poor me. bad things happen. sometimes you have to get "mad dog mean" (my pop would say that...hehe) and chew and claw your way out.

there are, of course, exceptions to the rule (i.e. Katrina victims). i think i would have hung myself with the closest durable material i could have found if i would have been in that situation.

oh...and i always get my name picked out in drawings...what did i do to earn that? nothing. so, maybe i don't believe in luck because i have it?

i'm totally confused. i think i'm going to go shower and think about this a little more.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:49 pm

Luck is that which happens irrespective of insurmountable odds. Anything less is not luck, just good planning.

Jives · Post by **Jives** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:07 pm

Tombstone wrote: I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

My "luck" approaches the astonishing as Tombstone can tell you. But as Jefferson would no doubt remind me, three college degrees and a good work ethic have placed the odds in my favor.

Here's an example. I go on a road trip in college with a friend. When it turns out that I will have to sit in the car while he takes a test I decide to try my luck too.

I qualify for a fighter pilot slot on the AFOQT, thanks to a high score. Luck? Yes, being in the right place at the right time was lucky. Skill? Yes, hand-eye coordination gained from years of videogames and a strong education helped me pass the test.:-2

SOJOURNER · Post by **SOJOURNER** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:31 pm

I don't think of myself as lucky.

Therefore I don't put myself in situations where it would prove me right.

weeder · Post by **weeder** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:19 am

Ive always thought of luck in terms of winning something. aso in this regard Ive always considered myself to be not unlucky but not lucky. My perspective changed this past August. Pathology reports from a malignant melanoma came back negative. A tiny red bump on my arm, brought me to deaths threshold, and I received a reprieve. Not only do I consider myself now, to be lucky... I am a changed person as well. This stoke of luck set me free from many meaningless fears we stress over while living.

Raven · Post by **Raven** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:24 am

Tombstone wrote: I've always admired Thomas Jefferson quotes. One of my favorites is his comment about luck:

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

Mark Twain had an appropriate thing to say about the subject of luck as well:

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident. ~Mark Twain

Frank Clark once said: It's hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you've earned.

So how about you? Do you believe in luck? Or is it a matter of hard work and perserverence? Do you find yourself as being lucky, or not?
I certainly believe in luck! My life is chocker block full of it! As an avid adventurer, I cling to the lucky star I was born under! I've taken quite a few risks that would have otherwise turned tragic, had it not been for a wee bit of luck!

chrisb84uk · Post by **chrisb84uk** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:45 am

Hmmm a very good question Tombstone, and one that could be debated forever.

I personally do believe in luck and fate. For most people however, people will class themselves as not being lucky. But when u actually compare most of our circumstances, such as education, living conditions, health etc, then compared to all those poor people living in less developed countries or anyone who is suffering from illness in our own countries, then I would say that we should really all class ourselves as being lucky.

Ok chances are we won't win the lottery, or run into some mega-famous person that u have always wanted to meet, but compared to others, most of us can live through life without the need to pray for luck to fall our way.

Luck usually just happens when u least expect it, being in the right place at the right time, and most of the time may have a significant effect on our lifes, be it positive or sadly negative. Luck is something that u cannot really control, but just hope falls your way when the time comes.

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:47 am

Jives wrote: My "luck" approaches the astonishing as Tombstone can tell you. But as Jefferson would no doubt remind me, three college degrees and a good work ethic have placed the odds in my favor.

Here's an example. I go on a road trip in college with a friend. When it turns out that I will have to sit in the car while he takes a test I decide to try my luck too.

I qualify for a fighter pilot slot on the AFOQT, thanks to a high score. Luck? Yes, being in the right place at the right time was lucky. Skill? Yes, hand-eye coordination gained from years of videogames and a strong education helped me pass the test.:-2
Very well put. I have heard the saying "The Luck Of The Irish" so many times. Are they really lucky? I hear of the great potato Famine and the Brits overpowering them and so forth. Seems to me the Irish have bad luck.

I do think that you are on the money with the video games preparing one for the new warfare. And possibly for driving a car. It used to be a given that kids growing up were going to have at least one car wreck as soon as they felt they were good drivers but my grandson has never had a wreck and he has drivien in fast paced heavy traffic a lot now. He was big on video games. Still is I guess. His eyesight is better than 20/20.

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:54 am

hotsauce wrote: i say work ethic plays a HUGE role in how lucky one is. just last weekend i was kicking the hubs' tail in pool..."you got lucky he said". me..."funny the more i practice the luckier i get".

i have a hard time feeling sorry for people who say this...this...this...this...and this happened...poor me. i don't have time for poor me. bad things happen. sometimes you have to get "mad dog mean" (my pop would say that...hehe) and chew and claw your way out.

there are, of course, exceptions to the rule (i.e. Katrina victims). i think i would have hung myself with the closest durable material i could have found if i would have been in that situation.

oh...and i always get my name picked out in drawings...what did i do to earn that? nothing. so, maybe i don't believe in luck because i have it?

i'm totally confused. i think i'm going to go shower and think about this a little more.

I am convinced there is "blind luck" At my work place there were two guys that always won things in company picnics and partys. And in life. Possibly they did effect the outcome sometimes. For instance one went deer hunting for a weekend and never saw a deer. He complained to the rangers as he was leaving and one ranger asked if he had thirty minutes. He said yes and the ranger told him to get in his jeep. He drove him to a spot and told him to look across a glen. He saw deer there and stepped out and shot one. The ranger drove him to the deer and helped him load it. Is that luck or his squeaky wheel ways?

On the other hand those same guys seemed to win every draw we had. If they were there, they were going to win.

But then those two are now in the ground. Sad. But they both lived a short life. I have to wonder if they got their rewards early because there was a power that knew they would not be here long.

sunny104 · Post by **sunny104** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:11 am

I don't think of it as being lucky or unlucky. I appreciate all the good stuff and learn from or just get thru the bad!:)

SOJOURNER · Post by **SOJOURNER** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:49 am

Perhaps luck is just the result of the power of positive thinking.

Benjamin · Post by **Benjamin** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:19 am

When I was in college, working days and going to school in the evenings, I had a roommate who was always complaining that he didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have any luck. He was from a fairly well off family and they paid all his college expenses. After he graduated, he opened a record store with financing from his father. After he ran that business into the ground, his father financed a stereo store. He ran that into the ground and then opened a speaker manufacturing business with the financing from his family, which he was in the process of running that into the ground last time I saw him. According to him, all his problems were due to Ã¢â‚¬Å“bad luck.Ã¢â‚¬ I should have such luck! :wah:

Luck is taking advantage of opportunities that come along.

Jives · Post by **Jives** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:24 am

Ben is right.

Once, as I was standing in my yard at the beginning of my 17th summer, I was thinking I needed a Summer job. I thought, "What would be a fun job I could enjoy and still get paid for it? Hmmm...being a lifeguard would be nice!"

At that very minute, my next door neighbor who was the manager of the local country club saw me standing there and walked up to me. "Jon, what would you think about being a lifeguad at the country club this summer?"

Of course I was delighted! Afterwards I felt that it had been an unbelievably lucky coincidence. But was it?

It was no coincidence that my parents had given me years of swim lessons. It was no coincidence that I had been motivated enough to get my WSI (Water Safety Instructor) license.

So...no...I think we make our own luck, just as Ben said.

jennyswan · Post by **jennyswan** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:27 am

I don't believe in luck at all. I just believe in destiny. I think that some parts of our lives are pre-destined so that we can learn from our experiences.

:-6

Cupid · Post by **Cupid** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:28 am

weber · Post by **weber** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:28 pm

I don't think of luck as something magical happening.

I find that when I am working hard and have a positive attitude, good things very often happen. And when I am moping and have a negative attitude, not so good thing tend to happen.

Marie5656 · Post by **Marie5656** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:30 pm

It is quite interesting to see some of these old posts bumped up. Especially posts from people who no longer visit the Garden. I remember Lon. Wonder where he is??

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:52 pm

weber;468761 wrote: I don't think of luck as something magical happening.

I find that when I am working hard and have a positive attitude, good things very often happen. And when I am moping and have a negative attitude, not so good thing tend to happen.

Well, I gotta say I do think some people are just flat lucky. Just today my daughter told me her friend Mikey just won $6000 in a lottery. This is the same boy who won $777 the very first day the lottery was legal here.

Then at work we had one man who was a friend on mine who always won games at our company picnic., Might as well give up if he was in it. There was one other guy I knew who really did make hos own luck. He went deer hunting over a weekend and did not see one deer so on the way out he complained to the ranger he might as well have stayed home. the ranger asked if he had thirty minutes. He said yes and th e ranger took him in his jeep to a spot and showed him deer. He stepped out and shot one and the ranger drove to it and helped him load it. Buyt then in the big picture, he ate so well over the years he got gout and then heart trouble and died young. If you are not so lucky to eat well you might be lucky to eat less choice beef.