I kinda feel bad about the title of the post, Lucky ;)

that's impressive, snotty guy ;)
did you ever read Gus Lee's book China Boy?
He went to West Point and part of the story surrounds a huge mystery that happened there in the 70s? It had to do with cheating but pretty suspenseful and fast read. I think it's also on audio-he is also Christian and his daughter runs the charitable arm of a big Christian band-I am not familiar with.

I wish someone 'Luck' when I wish to express a positive, encouraging sentiment and there is nothing I can otherwise do to influence the outcome. It is my agnostic version of "God bless you."

So when someone is going in for an operation or is moving to a new state, I can wish them "Good Luck" or "Bon Chance" (or "Bon Adventure" in the case of the move). It is a useful word, but should not be used as a substitute for 'work'.

Life is a crapshoot, however, and I do not mind hoping that 'forces beyond my control' positively affect me or people I like.

Jan

When the Mae West, who was outrageous for her time, was expounding her secret for success, one of the women she was talking to exclaimed, "My goodness!." Turning to the woman, without missing a beat, she said, "My goodness had nothing to do with it." in her famous Mae West cadence. When my son was being interviewed by a trade paper reporter, she exclaimed that he was lucky to have been so successful. Without missing a beat, he said that luck had nothing to do with it. Afterwards, I told him the Mae West story and we both got a chuckle. The secret of success, as far as I can tell, is to never give up and keep your goal in mind. Failure is often a part of that, and learning from the failure is very valuable.
Here is an example of what some people call luck because it was so successful so quickly. We published biographical comic books. One day, my son was at a mall in San Diego and he noticed only one store that seemed to be very busy. It was a sports memorabilia store. He went to the counter and asked who was the hottest sports star. The clerk answered Nolan Ryan, who had just pitched his 7th no-hitter. That afternoon we got busy putting together a comic book about Nolan Ryan. We scoured the library and book stores and looked up newspaper sports pages. Wrote the story had it illustrated and printed within the month. Fifty thousand copies flew out our warehouse. The demand went on and on until we sold a record number. Were we ever lucky! No we weren't. You could say, insightful, smart and hard working, but luck? Forget about it!

"Luck is a word that was invented by the lazy and the incompetent. It was invented for two reasons: The overt reason was to denigrate individual human achievement. The covert reason was to act as a salve applied to the self-inflicted wounds of the failures."

A.R. would most likely would have told you that you that you simply didn't want to be an astronaut badly enough. The very fact of your success is your justification for your decisions. You did set goals. Once achieved you set higher ones. Roark leaped to his goal getting bruised and battered along the way. You used a ladder. Both ways took effort and fortitude. Unlike the 50s & 60s your description of your progress would be incomprehensible to many of the so-called Millenial Generation.

In "Lead the Field", Earl Nightingale says, "Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. Opportunity is always there. Without preparation opportunity makes us look like fools."

Well, I guess that shows my age a little! In my opinion we could use a large dose of positive motivation these day. In these troubled times I have found it easier to advance my goals because most of the competition has called it quits.

I saw a quote form L. Pasteur on an archway inside the University of Rochester Library in the late 60's.
"Chance favors only the prepared mind". I have lived by that ever since.

One of my sports heros said it best when a reporter said he had a lucky round of golf. Without pause he responded, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." (Ben Hogan)

"Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the clever, nor favor to those with skill, but time and chance happen to them all."

Before reading: err umm, I dunno about that.
After reading: while I agree with Ecclesiastes 9:11, time and chance matter, but in our lives there remains a chunk, big or small, which our own will determines. Seize it.

I am really glad he took the moment to reflect and then give himself credit for his hard work. Too often people summarily dismiss their hard work when receiving credit, and this never imparts to other who would follow their path that "building that" wasn't easy.

I absolutely avoid use of the word. As a coach for our schools basketball team I have no appreciation for the one that wishes us luck. There is no luck involved, and likewise I never wish another team or player luck, I usually say hit em hard. And the guy is right the word cheapens the sacrifice of those making the effort.

New book in July! (Yes, I read the books first)

sigh-no Game of Thrones yet for me-I need to buy it and have it smuggled in ;)

He's an outstanding actor who worked his butt off to get where he is...

He is brilliant actor. Love his role on Game Of Thrones.