Maybe It Wasn’t Luck

We have a funny relationship with luck. 

Someone gets discovered online and we call them lucky. Someone lands an opportunity through a  random connection and we call it luck. A creator goes viral after years of posting and suddenly, all  we see is the moment everything changed. 

But what about everything that came before it? 

We rarely see the positioning that made the “lucky” moment possible. 

Les Alfred has built an entire podcast, She’s So Lucky, around this idea: what we call luck often has a  lot happening underneath it. The work, the persistence, the failures, the decisions and the  willingness to keep going rarely make it into the final story. We see the outcome, but not always the  iceberg beneath it. 

Social media has made this even more interesting. We can watch someone seemingly appear  overnight, a creator gets discovered, a model lands a campaign, an entrepreneur announces a  breakthrough, and because we weren't there for what happened before, the easiest explanation  becomes, “They’re just lucky.” 

But I also don't think luck is simply a synonym for hard work. 

Some things really are outside our control. Timing matters. Circumstances matter. Access matters.  Who we happen to meet matters. We don't all start from the same place, and working hard does not  guarantee that an opportunity will come knocking. 

What we can control, however, is how often we make ourselves available to possibility. 

We live in a world where we can publish our work, introduce ourselves to strangers, attend events,  join communities, apply for opportunities and make our interests visible to people who may have  never known we existed.

None of these things guarantee anything. But they create more chances for something to happen. 

I have started noticing this in my own life. I create through Loba Speaks. I write, network, research  and deliberately position myself for the things I want to do. I put myself forward for hosting  opportunities. I send the email. I publish the piece. 

Recently, a culture publication found my work and invited me to contribute. Was that luck? Maybe. 

But if I had never put myself out there, there would have been nothing for them to find. That is the  part of luck we often overlook. 

Creating your own luck does not mean controlling the outcome. It is about increasing your chances  of encountering one. It is about giving opportunity more places to find you. 

We see the opportunity and call someone lucky. We don't always see how many times they made  themselves available for it. 

Maybe luck isn't about being chosen by life. 

Maybe it is about putting yourself in enough places that, when opportunity decides to show up, it  has a way of finding you.