"There are two types of luck: random chance and prepared good fortune. The second one is what we must aim for."
Richard Brown
Motivation Monday - Richard's Insight
'The harder I practice, the luckier I get' - famous words accredited to the golfers Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Barber and many others for that matter! It seems to have been a popular saying among golfers!
Hitting a hole in one or holing out from a bunker in golf may happen as a matter of chance and if so, not that often. I can vouch for that as I cannot claim to be so lucky on either count! However, by practicing the same shot over and over again the golfer can increase the odds of that happening. In addition, by practicing so much they can also help to take emotion out of a shot in a tournament by making it largely automatic. These are very important points to note...improving our skill by practice, improving our opportunities through study and being ready and increasing our chances of beating pressure by force of habit.
These are very important points to note...
- Improving our skill by practice
- Improving our opportunities through study, and
- Increasing our chances of beating pressure by force of habit
Many people want to win the lottery or beat the casino or bookmaker, however, all of these providers of betting and games of chance have given themselves the upper hand, such that they know they will win...most of the time...in the end.
If we believe that hitting golf balls still involves too much of the chance variety of good fortune, here is what the scientist Louis Pasteur had to say: “in the fields of observation, chance favours the prepared mind”. That's a scientist speaking of luck!
In a similar way, by careful preparation, so too can we put ourselves in the position where we will win...most of the time. In European roulette, the edge for the casino is a mere 2.70% (1/37). This tiny skewing of the odds means the casino will always win in the end.
Just as with the Casino, we need to stack the odds in our favour, even just a little bit, and one way of doing this is to practice and be prepared. Practice in the context of a property investor can mean education and applied action into real life experiences in every aspect of what we do, be that making offers, negotiating on deals or judging ways to add value among others.
Do these things often enough and we put ourselves in the position to earn 'prepared good fortune'...then we will have luck on our side!