The Legend and The Luck

When you are successful, people have a lot to say to you. You are fantastic. You are talented. You are strong willed. You are lucky. Wait. What? Luck? Does luck have anything to do with a person’s success? I often hear people saying that. Someone finally gets into a college of his/her choice and there’s a guy who says that he/she got lucky. Someone writes a novel and it gets published. Again he/she got lucky. Someone proposes to a girl who, people think, is way out of his league and the girl says yes. ‘He is one lucky guy’, they’ll say. In any case, what role did luck play anyway?

Let’s say that all the qualities a person needs to be successful, are a team. Apparently, a lot of people would include luck in that team. Some would even say that luck is the star player of the team. The truth is luck is just a free rider. In the end, it gets all credit without actually doing anything.

Now I know, I am ranting here. Whining to be precise. But all I’m saying is, by alluding to someone’s luck, you are negating everything that the person has put into his craft. All the hardships they've faced, all the sacrifices they've made, all the passion and blood they've poured into their work is simply negated by calling them lucky. Nobody becomes an overnight success. A lot of time and effort goes into it and sometimes it takes years. And when you blatantly call that person lucky, you are disrespecting all those who have spent days working their arses off in order to achieve something.

A long time ago, I bumped into a celebrity in a washroom in some restaurant. Of course, no one believed me. Those who did said I was lucky. Cool. Recently I cracked CAT and managed to get into IIM Rohtak. They called me lucky again. But this time, it wasn’t cool. Absolutely not. I worked a lot for that. In fact, that was the first time in 4 years when I was actually serious about something. The main reason they called me lucky was that I didn’t go to any coaching classes. Isn’t that ironical? I’m not putting anyone down but it is more difficult when you aren’t attending those classes because you don’t have a direction. You don’t know where to start or how to proceed. Yet, I did what I could and I managed to make it into one of the prestigious IIMs. Now, if it weren’t for my luck, where would I be?

They say luck is a magical word. Indeed. You win a lottery. You meet your favourite actress at an airport. That is luck. Maybe. But someone has worked hard for something and got it. It’s not luck. Luck is no more the magical word it is deemed to be. Appreciate the person’s hard work. Admire the passion. If possible, try to know more about his/her journey and maybe take cues from that. Acknowledge the efforts and give the person the credit he/she deserves. But do not offend that person by using the word ‘luck’. After all, that person is a Legend and not lucky!