Does Luck Exist?

Does luck exist?

The woman’s soccer championship between the US and Japan was won by Japan.

There is no question that the US team was a better team all around and that they were prepared to win it all.

And yet, time after time they would get to the goal and miss, as if an invisible barrier stood between the ball and the goal.  When they finally scored and the game was ending, the US was winning 2 to 1, the Japanese scored a goal just by being in the right place at the right time.

That took the game to penalty kicks and the rest is history. The Americans missed three kicks, something not very common. We must say that in this regard the Japanese team had seen the Americans kicking penalties in a previous game and the US had not seen the Japanese in the same situation. The Japanese goal keeper knew each American kicker and she guessed correctly twice, enough to win.

The Japanese team also demonstrated great persistence, never giving up, staying in the game and doing what needed to be done to win.  A US player was interviewed and she congratulated the Japanese team and mentioned that supernatural powers had intervened in their favor.

For Japan that victory meant quite a bit. A country that had been hit by a Tsunami of enormous proportions, the nuclear disaster and the economic losses that they suffered in the middle of a huge recession and with a foreign debt over 200% of their yearly production, winning the championship was the best thing that could have happened to them.

I am really happy now that it is over that they won, the country deserves a break.

How about the America’s cup?  This tournament, perhaps any tournament, has ever had a quarterfinal quite like this one. The three group winners and the tournament’s host, Argentina, were all eliminated.

The perfect match everyone was waiting for, Brazil, Argentina went up in smoke.

Paraguay got to the quarterfinals without winning a single game. Can you imagine? And now they get to the finals without winning a game. Venezuela dominated the second half and they simply couldn’t score. During the penalty kicks, Venezuela missed one, well, in reality the goal keeper blocked a kick that would have scored.   Whether you think Paraguay is lucky or not, they will probably not beat Uruguay in the final game, unless… The game is on Sunday so when you read this article on Monday we will all know.

Peru getting to the semifinals was almost a miracle. They finished bottom of the Conmebol World Cup qualifying, and they come to the America’s cup and get to the quarterfinals losing to Uruguay.

This America’s tournament has been the strangest ever, no doubt about it.

Getting back to the original question: Does luck exist?

Have you ever noticed that very successful people sometimes will accomplish as much in a year or two as the average Joe accomplishes during their lifetime? I have seen it many times.

Have you ever noticed that when these winners accomplish a lot, the guys in the pack will talk about them and say that they are simply very lucky?

There might be confusion between “chance” and “luck”.

Some experts say that chance is like winning the lottery or playing roulette, the outcome is not predictable. Whatever happened on the last roll of the ball has no connection whatsoever as to what will happen the next time around. Your winning or losing has nothing to do with luck; it is all a matter of chance, of the odds.

They say that “luck” is predictable; it is the result of doing what you need to do in order to be ready to seize opportunities come your way.

Al Simmerman tells the story of a keynote address in 1980. The room was packed standing room only, with people applauding the lady as she walked to the podium and stood in front of the lectern to deliver her speech.

She looked at the whole room, scanning the audience and then said: “My mother is a deaf mute. I do not know who my father was or is. My first job was picking cotton. And I stand before you this day as Treasurer of the United States. My name is Azzie Taylor Morton”

She went on to say that you don’t have to stay where you are in life if you really don’t want to. She then took out a dollar bill and told the audience that next time they thought that they couldn’t do anything, to look at the dollar bill and look at her signature.

Was she lucky?  Or did she do everything she had to do in order to achieve the success she achieved in her life?

Some say that luck is when preparation meets opportunity however I think it is better to end the article with the dictionary’s definition of luck.

1. The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events; fortune: They met one day out of pure luck.

2. Good fortune or prosperity; success: We wish you luck.

3. One's personal fate or lot: It was just my luck to win a trip I couldn't take.

To gain success or something desirable by chance: lucked into a good apartment; lucked out in finding that rare book.

So what do you think? Does luck exist?

Going the Extra Mile

Going the extra mile

We have all heard the expression going the extra mile. In my conferences when I talk about
the principle that successful people are willing to do things that unsuccessful
people are not willing to do, what I am really saying is that successful people
go the extra mile.

I was wondering where the concept came from and much to my surprise I learned that it
originated in first century Palestine.

During those times the Romans were the imperialists and they had conquered most of the
world, ruling it from the viewpoint of the iron hand. In fact, by law, a Roman soldier had the
right to ask an inhabitant of any of the conquered territories to carry his
back pack for him one mile, but only one mile.

The Israelites were offended by that law and hated the brutal and despotic rule of
the Roman empire but they would obey the law so as not to be arrested. The
catch was that they would only go one mile, not a foot more. The
Hebrew’s also followed many laws that were based on the Ten Commandments and
other laws they thought the lord had given them. To all these laws many more cultural rules and
rituals were added and the most dedicated leaders lived trying to follow them
to the letter. They followed the one mile law and that was it, not an inch more.

According to Mathew 5:41 when Jesus spoke to his followers in the Sermon on the Mount, he
said “ If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles”.

He was obviously referring to the Roman law that required them to go one mile and even
though the law was resented by them all, he was telling them that not only
should they obey the law but go even further and do it happily. Lots of people
certainly didn’t like this suggestion.

This concept of going the extra mile has evolved through the centuries and it now
means to live above the benchmark, treating people with benevolence, deference
and consideration regardless of what they are entitled to. In other words, it is not enough to do only
what is requested or required. In order to find real happiness and success in
our lives, we should give charitably of ourselves beyond what is expected of
us.

Going the extra mile as a philosophy is not based on logic, feelings or emotions but on
the only thing we can all control: choice.

We can choose to act out of affection or appreciation for others, not because they are
entitled to it, not because it is demanded of us and not even because we feel
like it, but simply because it is our philosophy, what guides us, what makes us
special.

The principle of going the extra mile could totally transform our society, now,
when it is needed the most.

It involves aiming for excellence and finding pride and satisfaction in the process. Doing
more than what is expected, taking total control of one’s life by the conscious,
mindful act of giving extra time, energy, resources, as our contribution not
because we are required to do so but because we have made the conscious choice
to do so.

Let’s look at a few examples in the real world:

You take your car to be serviced at your auto dealership and when you pick it up, it is
sparkling clean because the dealer went the extra mile and cleaned it.

Imagine going to a flower shop to buy a dozen roses and the owner gives you one extra
simply because he or she wants you to feel special.

What if you are working for a company and the manager asks you to do some competitive
analysis of the companies that are directly competing with your own company.

You go out and you do what they asked you to and then you tell the manager that you also
analyzed the two companies that went out of business to see if they made some
mistakes that your company could learn from and avoid. When that manager needs to promote someone, who do you think he or she will promote?

We all must realize that it is what we do, not what we say we do, that gives us the results
we have.

We all say we want to success, financial security, health, good children, a good
government but we don’t really do much to make sure it happens.

In this way, we sabotage our own success because we are saying something, we are not
doing it and our minds by repeating the words so often believe that we are
really doing it when we are not.

Right now when we are going through difficult times, full of opportunities, but difficult
times, some people are messing up their lives by making stupid decisions and
doing stupid things.

It is time to deal with the stupid things people do, find out why they do them, and teach
them how they can stop doing them. Who
are the ones that can teach people to stop doing stupid things? The people that
get results, the ones that are successful, those that day in and day out work
hard and go the extra mile.

If you understand this principle of going the extra mile and you start applying it
tomorrow, your life will change and if we get enough people to do it, whole
industries could change and if whole industries change, our country will
change.

Imagine if our tourism department would adopt the principle of going the extra mile with
every tourist that comes here. What would that do to our tourism industry?

No matter what you do for a living, identify how you can go the extra mile and you will have
more clients that you can handle.

The Need for Empathy in a Difficult World

The need for
empathy in a difficult world

I receive hundreds of emails a day, some, more
valuable and appropriate then others.

A friend
sent me one yesterday that I believe is one of those gems I must share with you
and gave me the theme for this week’s article. The email was titled “Anyway”
and didn’t have the name of whoever wrote it. I will share it with you anyway.

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.



If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.



If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.



The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Be good anyway.



Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.



What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.



People need help but will attack you if you help them.

Help them anyway.



In the final analysis, it is between you, your conscious and what you believe
is right.

It was never between you and them anyway.

This is so true. I have sent it to many of my friends and
even some that don’t ever write back, wrote me agreeing with it or thanking me
for sending it to them.

Every single day I find examples of people that do what
this email says. In fact, one recent example that involves a reader of the
Puerto Rico Daily Sun serves as proof that there are many good people out
there.

I wrote in a past column that times are tough and that
people have to adapt to circumstances and do things that they have never done
in the past. I mentioned the case of an employee of a company, a client of mine
that had seen his overtime pay reduced quite a bit and with a 90.00 dollars a
week gasoline bill and making minimum wage, he simply couldn’t make it. I wrote
that he was going to ask permission for him to park the car every night in the
company’s parking lot and live in his car from Monday to Friday and then go
home on weekends. That way, he wouldn’t spend so much money on gas.

Well, lo and behold, I was contacted by a dear reader and
Facebook friend whose initials are K.L. to ask me for the name of the employee
and wrote him a check for 50.00.

The nice lady doesn’t know this man and yet she is so
touched by what he is going through, that she sends him some money. That is an
example of empathy.

When I gave the employee the check, his eyes swelled up
and simply couldn’t believe it.

Recent discoveries in brain science and child development
are forcing the scientific community to rethink the long held belief that human
beings by nature, are selfish, aggressive and materialistic. Realizing now that
we might be the opposite, empathic at the core, has profound and far reaching
consequences for the way we educate our children and for society in general.

I think that it is critical to resolve the
empathy/destruction paradox in order for our species to be able to survive and
thrive in this complicated planet we live in.

Although life as it’s lived day to day is sprinkled with
suffering, stress, injustices, crimes, and what we call foul play, it is for
the most part lived out in thousands of small acts of kindness, altruism,
benevolence, goodness and magnanimity.

Good relationships and compassion between people create
goodwill, establishes strong chains of society and gives happiness to people’s
lives.

We can define empathy as the mental process by which one
person places himself or herself into another’s being and comes to know how
they feel and think. The “pathy” in
empathy means that we enter into the emotional state of another’s suffering and
feel his or her pain as if it were our own.

We all know that unemployment is at an all-time high;
people are still losing jobs, possessions and in many cases, even losing their
homes.

My next door neighbor got his car repossessed and also
lost his home. Feeling very sorry for him and his family, I gave him my second
car which I rarely used.

Every economy since the beginning of mankind turns around
sooner or later. Everything is in cycles and no matter how bad things are, for
some, things are great.

If gas prices are high, economy cars are sold much more
than gas guzzlers. If people don’t send their clothes to the cleaners as often
as before, coin laundry’s do much better.

If brand name products sell less, generics sell more.

If people are demotivated, professional motivators such as
myself are doing very well in this tough economy.

If people are out of jobs, schools, universities and trade
schools will do great because people will need more education.

Whenever there is a loser, there will be a winner; it is
as simple as that.

What we need now is for people that are winning, to be
empathic with those that are losing.

If some people are going to get fired from a company,
maybe you can become a leader and suggest that you are willing to take a 5% cut
in your pay, encourage others to do the same and save some jobs.

Look for ways to help people that are not doing as well as
you are doing. If at the present time you can’t help financially, at least give
people your smile, a pat in the back or some words of comfort. Give them a book
or some free advice on how to be more effective in making some money or in how
to survive tough times.

In order for us to survive in this world, empathy must
beat selfishness.