ARE YOU LUCKY?

What is Luck?

Is it finding a one thousand naira note on the floor on your way from work? Is it winning the visa lottery? Is it rolling the dice and it falls with double six facing up? Is it closing the bank in a casino at Vegas? Is it walking to a crowded ATM terminal and trying your debit card in one of the ignored terminals only to be paid by it to the dismay of those who had been queuing for hours before just one terminal? Is it getting upvotes from a whale for posting a content that someone else had posted before? Is this what luck is?

Is the lady luck a whore? Does she offer her services to the lazy, the lousy, the thief? You tell me? Have you had a job interview with which you got a good paying job that you didn’t prepare for? Do you call that luck?

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What is luck, I ask you again? You do not know? You are not sure? You still believe it is gold ring shining beneath the limpid waters of a river? How has your luck fared so far?

When we speak of success or of a lucky break, most times we forget to mention opportunity. We forget that if not for opportunity, we would never have found success.

What is Opportunity?

Opportunity is that chance to prove yourself. To show that you deserve what you need or desire. It is the chance to make a name for yourself, to defend all your bluster, bragging and boasting. Opportunity is luck in its metaphysical state. It is yet to fully manifest. It is still a possibility.

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Many have been given the opportunity to do good, to do great things, to change, to be better, to give the world something good to remember them for, but they have failed. They have stood before the judges and have flopped, they have stood before the audience and have stuttered. Opportunity alone does not make a man lucky or successful.

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There is the story of a female Corp member back when I was in Zamfara State serving my country in the mandatory one year Youth Service Corps program (NYSC).

She was lucky, as they had said then, to land a job as a teller in a bank. This was when all corps members were expected to teach. She was the envy of many a corps member. She got a good pay on top of her monthly allowance unlike most of us who had to make do with just the federal government allowance.

It was said that, in a whim, the manager of the bank had asked her to write a letter and the young lady could not write it. She did not know how to address a letter, start or end a letter. This is a lady that had spent four years studying for a degree in the University. How she graduated is still a mystery. Anyway, she lost the job immediately. Do you still think she was lucky?

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She had the opportunity. She got a job in a place where no one of her mates could aspire for, yet she failed at it. That is not luck, that is not success. Why did she fail? Well she wasn't prepared.

What is Preparation?

Preparation is working at something until you are good at it and even then you push yourself to other levels of perfection. No one is born with perfect skills. We all learn them. A musician might have been born with a sonorous voice but if she had not trained it, she would have ended in some back water church leading old spinsters on choir rehearsals for programs only they would attend.

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Preparation is planning ahead. You do not have a car but you have learnt how to drive; why? Because one day you might just walk into an interview and the first and only question you will be asked is ; “can you drive?” and the job is yours!

Preparation is learning everyday not for the sake of your expectations but because you want to grow yourself. The first time I touched a laptop, it was because I wanted to watch an anime; D' Grayman. I loved that anime.

The owner of the laptop was not at home. I didn’t know where the power button was. I located it, pressed it and navigated my way to the folder and then I watched the anime.

From that day, my curiosity was piqued and I learnt to use the computer informally; no lessons, no formal classes. Then I had no idea, I would come to write poetry, or be published somewhere, or that I would be on steemit, trying to convince you about what luck is. I just wanted to watch animes but I learnt how to use the computer and even when I didn't have my own, I stuck at learning it.

Not too long after, I discovered essaywriters.net that paid you to help people do assignments, term papers, ghost write stories, do thesis and projects. Was I prepared?

Again, What is Luck?

When opportunity meets with preparation, you have luck, you have success. The first persons to join steemit were lucky, right? Because they are whales now with hundred of thousands of steem power to play with, right? But do you know that not everyone who joined steemit at its inception is a whale today? Do you know that there are some minnows among you and I whose blog accounts were opened in 2016? What happened?

Many people came on steemit unsure of what to expect. A lot of persons did not take the platform serious, some still do not take it serious. They thought it was some kind of joke; blog, vote, earn; what the hell is that? They didn’t see the opportunity, they were not prepared.

Some came and after playing around the platform for a few weeks, they grew disinterested and walked away. Now they are back after a year of hibernation and they see the possibilities they had denied and choked of life, they see what the future would have been if they had been prepared and saw the opportunity steemit represented. They question their reasoning then, and my friends that is how being unlucky feels like.

If you want to find favour with lady luck, you need to be prepared. You need to have all your tools pared, sharpened and arranged. You need to be at the best you can possibly be. So when it comes, you’d be able to grab at her coat tails and travel the world with her.

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I will leave you with this story. One day, after years of writing poetry and shoving them into holes and hard drives, I decided to come out. I decided to let the world know that I wrote poetry. I chose facebook as my medium of expression and I posted poems all over the place. I was not getting paid for this but I was getting great reviews.
This reviews made me decide to submit my poems to a journal operated by a lady, a professor from my country and surprisingly my poem was accepted. I was that good? Unbelievable.

I started submitting more and more and rejection after rejections piled up. I thought I was good so why would they reject my poetry? Then I started reading poetry, reading books on writing, reading literary reviews, listening to dialogues, taking note of human emotions especially those words cannot express. After a period of hibernation, I started submitting again.

I have so far appeared in about nine publications since that time and after each I still find a way to be better, to do better. In my foray on facebook, I caught the eye of a blog and I was employed to write short stories. I had never written fiction before but I took it in my stride and learnt along the way. The blog taught me some of the ideas and skills I use here on steemit today. Am I lucky?

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A lucky man is a man that has been rehearsing in his bedroom, before his full length mirror, with his hair brush, for years. He is the man that wins the visa lottery with a job offer in his kitty. He is the man that goes out with an extra handkerchiefs and when the lady of his dreams needs one, it is available. Do you get me?

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Knowledge is good but it is knowledge utilized that is power. Knowing and doing are two different things. If you want luck, then prepare; study, learn, assimilate, digest, practice, rehearse and when opportunity comes, you will make your luck.

Note:
It should be noted that these are my own opinions and you may not agree with me. I am willing to hear your arguments in the comment section.

Peace.

©@warpedpoetic.