Are You Accidentally Successful?
Many years ago I read a book with a title something like lucky or smart. It was a short book from a founder of an early search engine who sold the company at the top of the internet craze and later went on to do other things.
He often got asked the question, ”Are you smart or did you just get lucky?” He ended the book by saying that he was smart enough to know when he was getting lucky.
I believe that some portion of everyone’s success is due to luck. It is foolish to believe that you are exactly where you are based solely on your abilities and that you did not get lucky a bit.
So we should accept that at times if we work hard we will get lucky. BUT expecting to be lucky is foolish.
In all life situations, things can go several different ways. We as humans get stuck in believing that our view of what will happen is certain. BUT as we all know, God has a sense of humor and often provides us with paths that we do not see.
With that being said, I believe that we should dissect our successes as much as our failures to get an understanding as to why they occurred. Most people and companies do a decent job of beating themselves up for their failures BUT we do a less than impressive job of understanding successes.
One of the most powerful root cause techniques is the 5-Why. This technique keeps asking why something occurred and looks for data to support that answer. Once an answer is found it asks another why and looks for data to that answer. Sometimes it takes more than 5 whys to get to the root cause of failure OR success.
Most teams and individuals are good BUT not great. They have good enough skills to survive BUT not thrive. It takes an extra push and willingness to grow for teams to get better. Mastery can only be achieved over time and not overnight. Yes, you might win a game but winning the season is a completely different level of performance.
Without the drilling down into why and wiliness to get better teams to rely on luck to carry the day. Maybe someone will pull it off at the last minute? Maybe someone will sink a half-court shot? Maybe we will just get lucky?
Lucky is understanding opportunities in front and taking advantage of them. You have to have your eyes open to recognize that you are getting lucky.
Processes are the difference-maker. You have to have a good process that you follow of how you and your team will move from start to finish. AND along the path, look for opportunities to get lucky.
My four cents…
