Over the years, I have often heard people refer to those who have achieved a lot in their lives and careers as just being lucky.  Do you think it is truly the case that people who achieve what they set out to achieve are just lucky?

Over the weekend I had a unique experience.  I was playing golf with a gentleman who I met at the course and we were paired together.  As we chatted during the round, I learned that he had been playing golf at a high level for a long time.  He was a former assistant golf professional, and still played in a lot of local tournaments.  Interestingly, he never experienced making a hole in one.   Very few of us do.  He mentioned that he witnessed many people have this unique experience.  Most, he mentioned, were not particularly good at golf, and perhaps many didn’t put in the practice time that he had.  We joked about the very slim chance it would ever happen to someone.  It seemed, it did require quite a bit of “luck.”

Then, an amazing thing happened.  About five holes later, the gentleman hit a 200 yard, 4-iron on a Par 3.  We could not see the hole from the tee, but it looked like a solid shot.  When we approached the green we did not see his ball.  After looking around for his ball, I told the gentleman it must be in the hole.  He didn’t want to believe it.   We approached the hole together and sure enough, there it was!  It was an amazing moment to watch, and I was thrilled to be able to experience it with him.

While it would be easy to say that hole in one was just luck (and it certainly was to some degree), his own preparation and skill is what gave that ball a chance to go in the hole.  You could say he did everything right to create his own luck.   When preparation, practice, skill development and the right attitude come together with opportunity, great things can happen.  That’s called creating your own luck.  Great achievers don’t sit around waiting for something lucky to happen to them.  They simply focus on doing the right things and believing in themselves, and eventually great things will happen.