The answer lies not in circumstance, but position.
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I was talking to an employee about developmental opportunities when he said, “If I get lucky enough to get promoted, I will be willing to work a lot harder.”
Luck is often the result of positioning, not circumstance. A competitor offers to sell you their business for a song? You’re only lucky if you actually have the money — or lender relationships or deep-pocketed connections — to buy it.
Otherwise, you’re no better off than if the offer was never made.
The same is true with most opportunities. Spotting an opportunity is relatively easy; already possessing the skills, experience, wherewithal, etc. required to actually seize the opportunity is what truly matters. You have to do the work long before the opportunity comes your way. You have to do the work long before any potential for return.
And often even without an idea of what the actual return could be.
Saving money, not for a specific goal, but just to put yourself in a better financial position if an opportunity comes your way? That’s tough. Taking on an informal leadership role, not because you want a specific promotion, but because you want to develop leadership skills that may someday pay off? That’s tough.
Specific goals are difficult enough to work hard — and consistently — to achieve. A goal like “put myself in a better position” is too vague to provide sufficient motivation, much less a clear line of sight between effort and outcome.
Doing things to position yourself for future success — like saving money, or expanding your knowledge and skills, or getting in better shape — is hard, since meaningful outcomes won’t occur until well in the future.
Adding $50 to your bank account this week won’t instantly make you rich. Stepping in to help solve an interpersonal issue between two colleagues won’t instantly make you an outstanding leader. Doing a 20-minute HIIT workout won’t instantly make you fit.
Yet the most successful businesses earn higher margins by first delivering greater value, instead of expecting to be paid more to provide more. The most successful employees earn higher salaries and promotions by first working harder.
An opportunity is only truly an opportunity if you’re in a position to seize that opportunity.
Which is why successful people, in all areas of life, earn bigger payoffs by working incredibly hard well before any potential return is in sight. They earn their success through effort and sacrifice.
They earn their success through positioning. They’re no luckier than you or I; they’ve just worked hard to be able to act on the luck that comes their way.
Their ability to act — their ability to make luck not just a noun, but a verb — is what makes them luckier.
Most people expect to get more before they will ever consider doing more. Take the opposite approach. Decide how you define success — because everyone’s definition of success should be different — and then think about what steps you can take, over time, to position yourself to be able to achieve that success.
Because when you work hard, opportunities will come your way.
The key is to be ready and able to seize them.
