Luck

Whenever I review someone's resume, or when someone asks about interviewing, I often finish my response with 'I wish you luck with your search'. That might seem odd, given we have dozens of podcasts describing all the work you need to do in order to have a successful transition. But the transition between one job and another is 95% hard work, and 5% luck. As is getting a promotion, delivering a project or winning that contract.

The problem is that many people rely on the luck and don't do the hard work. Luck is you having a conversation with someone the day they hear about something that'll be great for you. Hard work is having cultivated your relationship with that person for the last 3 years.

Luck is an opening at a level above you, just when you're coming off a successful project and feeling awesome. Hard work is having spent the last 18 months doing 50-75% of that job, on top of yours, so that you're a slam dunk into the promotion.

Luck is your client having 10% of their budget left at the end of the year and wanting to spend it. Hard work is the 12 months you've spent keeping in contact every month and always offering value.

As Branch Rickey, a famous American baseball executive once said, "Luck is the residue of design."

I wish there were a secret store of silver bullets: one for the unemployed, one for those frustrated by their job, one for the guy whose project is going to miss the deadline AND the budget AND the quality metric. People ask us questions all the time as if we had access to this secret store. There isn't one. It's just hard work, and a little bit of luck.

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