Not Lucky

Do you remember the scene in Harry Potter when he won the tiny bottle of Felix Felicis or “liquid luck”? The magical potion guaranteed that the person would be successful at whatever they attempted for a short period of time. When Harry used the potion, it steered him to be in the right place at the right time and helped him say the right thing. Ironically, it didn’t allow him to have something “magical” happened for him—he just knew the right path to be on but he still had to walk along it. Don’t you wish you could have that precious jar of liquid luck to use?

When I was in law school, I had to arrange and apply for articling positions. Back then, this would be a year long placement, usually at a law firm, that every student needed to complete. Since I didn’t know what direction I would take with my law degree, I didn’t do this in the summer before my last year, traditionally when students apply and accepted for their placements.

Instead, I decided to delay and look for an international internship first and then sort out an articling placement for a year later. I researched and studied how to make this happen and connected with people who could help me. I endured many people wondering what the hell I was doing and talks from well meaning persons who thought I was throwing away my education and career with this plan.  

At times, I lay awake at night, questioning if I was on the right path. While I waited for calls back from interviews, I began to second guessed myself. On the last day of school with everyone else buzzing in anticipation of their own articling year and me with no solid plan, I worried that I had made a terrible mistake.

However, a few days later, my hard work with planning an alternative path paid off. I obtained an international internship in India, starting in a few months and following that, my dream articling position in northern Ontario for the following year.  When I explained to my fellow students my two year plan and as a bonus it allowed me to take the summer off before I flew half way around the world, I was met with stunned disbelief. And then very often with the following statement: “you are so lucky.”  

I felt like one of the luckiest persons too. But it was better than that because it was luck I had made myself: home-made luck. And we all know that “home-made luck” is way better than the store bought “luck in a can” which is mass produced in a factory, full of preservatives that aren’t good for you. Maybe that’s why drinking too much of Felix Felicis can be toxic and cause extreme recklessness.

Of course, it wasn’t luck at all. It was persistence and hard work. It was being true to myself and the journey I was on; and trusting it, even though it was different and uncertain at times. If I had been so lucky to have a potion of liquid luck, it would have only given me the reassurance that I was on the right path and to keep going. 

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes luck as “a force that brings good fortune or adversity.”  Luck can be seen as something outside of our control as if it is a windstorm that randomly rolls through our life.

However, a psychology study found that those people who believed that luck was something out of their control were less likely to find success than those that thought of luck as a state of mind, such as seeing ones’ self as a “lucky person.” Reference, please see this article:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-leaders-code/201406/why-you-should-believe-in-luck

Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” 

This captures how I view breaking into the publishing realm: to get lucky in the writing world, you have to work hard, find the path that is right for you and keep on trekking through failures and successes.  

None of us really need the tiny bottle of “liquid luck” even if it sounds so tempting. The recipe for luck is simple: believe in yourself.