Today is May 14 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you consider the role of happenstance in your success?”
Robert H. Frank examined the role of luck in his book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. Frank discusses how social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. For some luck is a positive experience; while for others very negative.
For example, Frank suffered a major sudden cardiac event while playing tennis. If it had not been for an ambulance that merely happened to be nearby due to a car accident he would have died.
Best-selling author Michael Lewis just happened to sit next to the wife of a Salomon Brothers banker who convinced her husband to give Lewis a job. That job eventually allowed him to write his first best-selling book Liar’s Poker.
Bad luck frowned upon Mike Edwards, formerly a cellist in the British pop band the Electric Light Orchestra. Edwards was driving on a rural road in England in 2010 when a 1,300-pound bale of hay rolled down a steep hillside and landed on his van, crushing him.
Steven Lynn Chilcott is one of only two number one picks in the Major League Baseball draft to never make it to the major leagues. In 1967, during his second season in the minor leagues, he injured his shoulder diving back to second base where he dislocated his shoulder and ended his season. He was plagued by injuries for the rest of his baseball career and by 24 years of age had to quit baseball.
American author Rita Mae Brown wrote “So much of life is happenstance. It makes me laugh to go to a bookstore and see all those titles about controlling your life. You’re lucky if you can control your bladder.”
How often do you consider the role of happenstance in your life?