In my life, I’ve had good and bad luck. I’ve also fucked over bad luck many times. And that my friend has made all the difference in my life.
I’ve learned it’s far more manageable to fuck a bad thing ove
Over 40% of self-made millionaires were born into poor bad luck families. And of course, there is the random luck of the lottery-type windfalls. I love what Warren Buffett said on CNBC about luck’s draw. He believes it’s luck that blessed him with a sharp eye for business.
The point here is, our luck has a lot to do with where we begin this life and how much we desire to change our luck. Were we born in a Third-World country with an M16 in our hands, or were we born in America where anything is possible?
By the time you finish this article, you’ll be thinking of at least 5 people and their lucky or unlucky lives. And, before you begin evaluating your own luck, take a mental note of where your luck started from the get-go. It does matter. If you were born poor, never made it to college, and you’re working a low paying job to support your family, or you’re a struggling business owner plugging away endlessly, then cheers, my friend, you’ve got tons of potential – but indeed you will understand the challenges.
TOP INFLUENCES FOR DEFEATING BAD LUCK
The poor who became the self-made millionaires believed that many factors contributed to their good luck. Here are some of the top influences for kicking bad luck out the door.
- Supporting families that believed success was possible.
- Strong and caring work ethics.
- Willingness to take risks.
- Compelling awareness to save money.
- A strong belief in the pursuit of happiness and dreams.
- Exceptional drive to be organized, disciplined.
- Creative freedom.
- Positive mental attitude overall.
- A drive to learn, grow, and expand regardless of their economic situation.
- Those who change the things that are important to them over those they’ve been told to change. They follow a true talent and deep desire!
These factors are of great influence to the rags-to-riches stories – but I’ve known people lacking all these support factors growing up, yet they climbed out of life’s shit pile. It does make you wonder why now and then; an apple appears under and orange tree. Look over the list and ask yourself what influences you? This list has a lot to do with how to fuck over bad luck.
FOUR THINGS THAT KEEP LUCKY PEOPLE LUCKIER
ONE: Patience to do things right is key.
What’s difficult in society today is the impatience to go the full course. We want everything served up on a platter and fast to keep up with what we think we see around us. Everyone else is happy! Everyone else has the luck of the gods! Good thing in this life take patience.
But luck won’t budge with aimless self-improvement mantras. The self-improvement industry and its ability to sell things that don’t exist, things that are short-lived or that minimally succeed, shows how desperate we actually are to change our luck.
TWO: Luck is not strong enough alone, you need a solid plan.
Good luck has a lot to do with a good plan, as positive thinking is not big enough on its own. Luck is dessert, and the meal is how much effort one made to provide that meal. Bad luck usually has less impact on the man who plans well, works hard and never gives up.
Businesses leave nothing to luck, they create new strategies each year for every department. You are a business in your own right. And a good business doesn’t just sit back and watch life roll by.
Rather, you focus on what’s important to you. First, you learn, then strategize. Learning means to be curious, allow yourself that right to be as smart as you want to be. And strategizing means taking the knowledge you’ve learned and doing something with it regardless of what stage of life you’re in. Strategizing means starting from the bottom and learning everything you need to move forward even if it’s inch by inch.
If you knew how long it took me to create this website you’d be surprised. It was a long tedious plan of action that took doing very uncomfortable things. My initial luck sucked! Now, it doesn’t. People come to me daily asking. HOW DID YOU DO IT?
THREE: Giving too much is essentially throwing yourself under the bad luck bus.
We assume that the bad guy walks away from someone in need because they are mean, but it has a lot to do with the preservation of resources. Bad guys know not to stretch their luck.
When I was of grade-school age, I met a boy born into the bad luck slums who was labeled “Bad Luck” I wasn’t the superhero smash up the neighborhood kind of kid, but I was always the first one at the scene to save the underdog. Yep, a little girl in a cape that anyone could push over with a strong breath!
I’ll be honest, that cape brought me a ton of bad luck until I learned how and when to wear it. Putting yourself between a bully and a little boy called “Bad Luck” was kind of stupid. Not saying it wasn’t worth it, but if I would have continued a reckless rush to save every “Bad Luck” case in my life, I’d have become the bad luck punches myself.
And, it took decades to look back and realize, I was the underdog! I hadn’t really noticed. I was who I was, and loved it, so I didn’t really see it until I was older and looking back. But it did have an effect on my luck being the underdog.
Growing up, I was told to stop wearing the cape. That it would bring me down, bring me bad luck. But I didn’t. I’m still reminded to remove the cape and I still don’t. Dreams were my escape from difficult times and so was helping others. I’ve never closed the portal to my youth, and I wouldn’t close it now.
The point here is, don’t stop caring about the world around you, but be very careful how you do it. Don’t be the idiot who throws themselves under their own bus.
FOUR: When we are curious we learn, and luck loves learning.
I am and always have been a person who bores easily, that got me into trouble yet was the funnel of inspiration as well. I totally didn’t get the world around me, so I put on the cape while obsessively reading books on why everyone hated the “bad luck” boy. Why the world was cruel, wars, pain, suffering, and also why there was happiness.
Curiosity is fuel and I had it. History books to me were better than television, people, biographies and psychology studies kept me out of the boring life I saw around me and I became the expert to the enemy, bad luck.
Learning is partly a habit. Do it enough and you’re addicted. As I said, watch life roll by or roll with it.
Later I realized not all bad things were bad luck, they were pure evil and I couldn’t control hunger or Hitler, I couldn’t give slaves back their lives, or reform the crusaders, but I did have a say in my own luck and so do you.
Hang in there, I’m getting to the juicy parts on how to fuck over bad luck. You can skip ahead, but then you’d miss hearing how that little girl in the cape changed the world little bits at a time.
Winning at cards is difficult if you’ve never played. Meaning, luck is practiced, learned, and running to Vegas to win a round will probably leave you losing.
PEOPLE WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN ARE PROACTIVE AND PEOPLE WITH BAD LUCK ARE REACTIVE
It’s like this, we are not all the same. But a dreamer like the little girl in the cape or Warren Buffett, are subject to some of the same rules when it comes to using talents we each possess.
Neither one of us would benefit from being reactive over proactive. In my case, the independence and ability to dream were the seeds of “how to fuck over the bad luck.” For your life, keep reading and take notes,(If you’re a member you can take notes and store them in your private profile by clicking the black Note’s button in the lower right corner of this screen.) secrets vary individually, but the fundamental rules to avoid bad luck will remain the same, so your first notes should start with, “Are you reactive?”
Social philosophy states that genetic luck is not the same as merit. And people who make things happen are proactive rather than reactive.
I’m sure you know one of these bad luck types: the perfectionist who fears everything, a dreamer who lacks action, the overwhelmed avoider, the busy bee who lacks prioritization, and the one who never finishes anything they start. Each one of these groups gives good luck to others but usually reciprocates the bad. Interesting?
It’s simple, they are reactive in one way or another versus proactive.
When I look back over my life, the good devours the bad luck – but I’ve worked hard to develop self-discipline for success.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m different. My life is not common. But I bet a few will commiserate some commonalities.
DREAM THE BAD LUCK AWAY
Ever notice how happy go lucky dreams seem to have great luck at times? I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Lucky bastard.” usually pertaining to someone who appeared to do nothing for a run of great luck.
As odd as this may sound, traveling has opened many doors in my mind. Learning about other cultures has brought me luck in the sense that I’ve seen first hand how many different ways one can do one thing or how many ways one can live their lives. I was a dreamer who loved to travel.
Once while walking through the Bastille Market in Paris, alone and quiet, I watched people for a couple of days, ate a ton of cheese accompanied with everything that one could imagine. I don’t think I said more than a handful of words in those couple days when this elderly gentleman sparked a conversation and we became friends.
Of course, he was a fellow dreamer who understood traveling as a copious education. I will never forget the conversation that day with my new friend. I’ve written about it secretly for decades and come to this conclusion: Bad luck only applies to those who can’t dream a way out. Okay, there’s more to it, but hey, I know the power of dreaming.
If your laughing, then you’re not a fellow dreamer, if you are a fellow, you get it, dreaming is a way of strategizing, brainstorming. It’s when we look at our lives and give up, that bad luck fucks us for good.
Dreamers are free to forgive, live, and love. For when a man wakes up in the morning, choices are his to make. Shall he forgive life and rise, love and smile at the cruelty of the gods, and not give a fuck what is supposed to be because maybe supposed to be isn’t so perfect?
Here’s a funny bit of history for you. In the Hellenistic era Greeks practiced something called dream incubation. It’s where you self-reflect on a specific concern and then write it down before going to sleep. Bad luck can be a source of great stress, and focusing on how to change our lives starts with self-awareness. It’s kind of cool that the Greeks were doing this in 323 BC – 30 BC!
Dream analysis and being a dreamer are two different areas, but according to psychology experts, both have mental health benefits.
Don’t kid yourself, daydreams are ubiquitous, even the “ba humbugs” who say they never daydream are indeed dreaming. According to Harvard studies we dream half of every day even if we don’t admit it.
It’s simple, dreaming has not only been a shield against bad luck, but it reveals solutions by the default of just thinking something out. If bad luck plagues you, then draft a plan, dream how you want life to be, and then become the doer.
Dreamers who are doers are not those who dream going nowhere in fanciful thoughts leaving the stigma of negative labels. Doers have incredible successes. It’s these very dreamers that have, and are, drawing maps for our future. If we stopped dreaming due to those who never go anywhere with their dreams, our world would cease to move forward. It is why we must learn to be the dreamers who are the doers.
BAD LUCK IS MATH; IT MULTIPLIES LIKE A VIRUS AFTER YOU’VE BANKRUPTED YOUR “GET OUT OF BAD LUCK” TOKENS
This was my first real clue understanding bad luck. We all have an antivirus in us, it’s simply who builds defenses against bad luck versus those who don’t.
When I was a teenager and my car ran out of gas on a lonely road at 2 am on my way home from work, that was bad luck, right? Yes, but this was a “get out of bad luck” token moment. I would have to spend a life’s token for not putting gas in the car. The same applies to most mistakes. “Three strikes you’re out” is an example. You can survive a certain number of mistakes, but once they become perpetual, you lose, you’re fired, you suffer a loss, you’re out.
Was it bad luck to be short cash for the gas? No, it was a bad paying job that left me paying a penalty. And how lucky was I, that a state trooper gave me a gallon of gas to get me home? Cool guy, he siphoned it right from his car and gave me an envelope to donate to the gas fund. Hell, I learned I wasn’t the only one running out of gas!
When we grow up we work to build a life that puts gas in the car. We suffer from our mistakes and move on.
The problem with people who continue living bad luck is that they used up choices, sometimes long ago. They continue to walk the same risky path, the job they never wanted, the partners that hurt them, the same dead-end places with little change, the flat tires with no spare become their lives, and bad luck is now breakfast lunch and dinner. The cost is high and they have no tokens left for bad luck moments.
If you could go back and change your career. If you could get an education, do what you always dreamed of, changed this or that. Tokens used are those moments we made bad decisions and time moved on, tokens were spent and the future continued. If you learned from your mistake then you might have earned extra tokens.
And like anything else, making the right choices means first deciding what is important, then making those changes to prevent bad luck from having any control in your life.
Heads up everyone, you can’t go back in time, but you can stop the bad luck for the future. If you’re out of tokens, you’re going to have to earn some.
And, I’m not saying there isn’t such a thing as random bad luck either, the undeserved ceiling falling in type scenario, nor do I object to lucky charms. Like a lucky pencil for a test, a lucky shirt, and so on. I’m saying that usually, but not always, bad luck is a response to poor choices in life. And it’s like a video game, you’re given a set amount of lives from the start. Bad luck is no different, if you use up all your “get out of bad luck” moments too early, you’re in trouble.
I love Healthline articles, they are reviewed by tiered educators before released to the public. There’s an article by Crystal Raypole called Magical Thinking, stating that lucky charms can indeed be positive.
Are you asking yourself why you’ve used up all your tokens? Habits, like anything in life, once you repeat an action enough times, it becomes habitual. It’s not magical, it’s not bad luck that can’t be stopped, it’s changing life habits, that lead to better luck.
The state patrol officer informed me that my free gas was limited. It was up to the officer generally, but, if running out of gas became perpetual then free gas became complicated.
Also, luck did not earn me the gas, I had a lot of tokens, I was a presentable, well mannered, highly educated for my age group. I didn’t step out of the car drunk, or defiant. He evaluated
It’s no different in
HOW TO FUCK OVER BAD LUCK DOES NOT MEAN HAVING AN ATTITUDE; IT MEANS CHOOSING AN ATTITUDE
The phrase, “They have an attitude” refers to those people who have chips on their shoulders. The “don’t mess with me” types. But “choosing the attitude” is drawing the positive or negative “attitude” towards you. it’s believing in something. You.
Yes, I’m using the “believe in yourself” speech because it’s very important how we feel about ourselves. Want to have bad luck forever? Continue the attitude believing you are not lucky. “You will never win,” “you are small,” “you are stupid,” “it’s too late.” These feelings leave you dead to the world of success. Even worse are the tricky menacing ones that use a tiny drop of truth to dig your grave.
I know a guy, talented through and through, and a nice person on top of it. He was offered free education in the middle of a crisis: being married with children and years of failing to provide a good income. But it was too risky to take the FREE education, better stay on the minimum wage path because it was too late for him. Yeah, he was older for college according to our “irrational” society at the age of 45. He let one tiny truth about being older stop him. The man had no attitude what so ever.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are those addicted to risk who go too far. They have harmed everyone including loved ones -and will transmute their guilt about becoming Fortune 500’s latest superstar into an anxious rush where they avoid family knowing they can’t stop risking. Being addicted to risk has the same type of neural transmitters as cocaine addiction. This is another article!
When you choose an attitude, you control what you learn, see, feel, hear, and you evolve
Here’s an interesting twist. A common claim in the philosophy of action is that acting because of luck, prevents free action. And it’s true. When a child is born in Nigeria what happens to their free will? Being born in a country with the highest number of children out of school in the world pretty much kills the free will to learn – but we all want to hang on to that one hope, that one dream, that attitude that will deliver a poor child out of hell. And by all rights, we deserve to hang on to this hope, as good luck can happen just as well as the bad.
The IEP, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a peer-reviewed academic resource, writes on the subject of luck similar to that of the Kabala, in other words, no one understands it, they just keep trying.
Ever seen a cat go into the Halloween mode against a Rottweiler? His back is arched, fur it standing on end and fangs are out with mews and hissing. The cat’s in flight or fight mode. He doesn’t stand a chance against the giant, or does he? That’s what choosing an attitude to survive can do for you. Give you a chance. If you’re lucky like a cat, it’s natural to choose the fighting attitude, and in ironic replay, it’s when we, humans, are in our worst moment that we rise above. Fight or flight steps in and we kick the badass bad luck out the door. All the cat has to do is get one claw in the eye and he might escape!
We all are that cat at one time or another. Bad luck Rottweilers are everywhere. Hidden on every crossroad, bathtub, and fucking with us under our pillows. Without an attitude, the bad luck dog would not hesitate to bite us in half.
So, it’s obvious where I’m going, another way to fuck over bad luck is to choose the attitude that puts you on the right path in life. And, I’m not talking about aimless self-help attitude; the sit on the couch and wait for a miracle technique. You’ll wait a long time.
It is undebatable, in short, without attitude, inspiration is void. And without inspiration, life is void. When life is void, negative things take the place of lost positive motion. A person with an attitude has no control over their passions. But a person who is able to choose their attitude has control over not only theirs but others around them.
My friends, there are many ways to look at the world, and it’s a milky way of beautiful, but there is only one way the world looks at you when you have an attitude, black and white. No one cares why you have bad luck they just avoid you. But a positive attitude is a way to change perceptions that draw good or bad things to you.
I knew a homeless man who was digging in the garbage for food. I found him when taking out restaurant trash. Long story short, I’d seen many of them, gave tons of food away at that back door, but this guy’s bad luck was not controlled by an attitude of defeat. He didn’t preach, or beg for mercy as most do in an attitude of subservient pleas. He was in control regardless that he was hungry. Broke my heart to see a strong man hungry. I saw it first, in his eyes. “I won’t come back for more,” he said looking me straight in the eyes. He had respect, the other bums were void of it, they had given up their pride, respect, hope, they had spent all tokens and now lived bad luck’s snowball shit of a life.
This guy chose not to give up the attitude that makes you a self-sustaining human. If he’d used up his tokens, he was earning some back. True story, I gave him sandwiches for about a week, then he vanished to end up months later walking through my kitchen escorted by my front-end manager to find me. In a cheap but nice suit and briefcase he came to say thanks. I will never forget looking at his clothes and down to the briefcase, then up to his eyes with a smile. “Well, I see you’ve come up in the world.” It was a lunch I will cherish forever.
If you spoke with him, he’d tell you that he dreamed every day until something made sense and then planned a way out. His bad luck began turning when his attitude grew stronger until he made it to the top. And don’t think kindness doesn’t help someone with bad luck. I made him sandwiches, I didn’t give him dried up leftovers, I never said it, but I made them as if the prime minister was going to enjoy them. Why? Something in how he was able to maintain his attitude of freedom without arrogance or pride, did it. He showed a humbled sadness to be hungry, and his refrain from becoming what he was living, and never to give up the idea that begging was wrong for him, was a strength I wish more people had.
It’s far more manageable in this life to admit why you have bad luck, than it is to continue clinging to the idea that shit’s not your fault or that you’re not in trouble.
There’s no reason why you will ever find that great accomplishment of your life while doing nothing to figure out what’s important to you. The beggar knew what was important. He controlled his attitude to believe in himself because it was important.
FUK*NG OVER BAD LUCK, MEANS KNOWING YOUR PERFECT PLACE
This may sound simple. But it is not. Making change, most of the time, is either prevented by things we are too lazy to accomplish, like the distraction of watching too much television, arrogance to admit we suck, or for those not as privileged, the reality of limited finances, education, and even health.
But come on, there are as many examples of the underprivileged who have crawled out of the gutter as those who claim bad luck kept them there.
What is bad luck going to do when you dream of a better life and then fucking find out how to get it? Better doesn’t mean living in a castle either.
So, cheers to another way to fuck over bad luck: love what you are, who you are, and what your limits are.
We love the movie characters that live a minimalist life and are the wise gurus to those bigger than they are. You know the TV shows where the doorman changes the lives of those living in the penthouse. In real life, these people exist, and they live honest lives that we label as “limited” – but in reality, the
I will not talk about those with biological issues. If you have been diagnosed with a bio-polar issue or have psychological reversal issues, it is reasonable to get to a professional right away. My article won’t do much but entertain you while waiting for your doctor’s visit.
BAD LUCK IS A SHARK BITING AT YOU AND THE BLOODY WATER IS WHERE NO ONE WANTS TO SWIM
In life, our bad luck cannot enter a full room. It has to kick something out. The cost ultimately is bad luck destroys an advantage, a commodity we could spend or use as energy. It’s a damn shark biting at us and the bloody water is where no one wants to swim.
Then somehow, oh, yeah, it’s the sad truth but we wake up and we’re
This is not a great future, to be the guy who sits on the park bench feeding the pigeons alone, then goes to breakfast every day his whole life and orders the bad luck pancakes over and over again.
Everyone knows that arrogance is linked to poor self-reflection. People who view themselves less than the rest of the world are prone to being the bullies, the tyrants, the arrogant losers.
YOU WON’T WIN WITH ARROGANT SELF-DENIAL
There’s absolutely nothing sexy or admirable about arrogance. People who are arrogant and use the self-denial game of, “I will do without” bullshit, are not brave or the Mother Teresa’s they might want to be; they are afraid of life and how they have lived it, or what they think their future will be. And in some twist, they are then reduced to being the complainers, the know-it-alls, the masters of denial, the ones with lots of friends but no visitors. They walk in self-pitied doom and incessantly tell stories of grandeur, yet life stole their luck from them.
This is the cool
Anyone who goes against the odds of any kind
Good luck with the luck, and remember you can reach out anytime. If you’re following my blog or are a subscriber, you can reply to any email I send you and I’ll respond or just email me here. Efrona@turtlepresspublishing.com
Efrona
Notes:
- BBC, Michael Bond, When faced with trauma, some people manage to emerge stronger than ever. How do they manage it? Michael Bond investigates.
- Want to feel lucky, read about the education crisis in Nigeria: BBC Minute, Why Nigeria’s educational system is in crisis – and how to fix it
- Business Insider, Thomas C. Corley, Contributor Oct 4, 2016, 3:23 PMThe difference between being rich and poor comes down to luck — but it’s more complicated than you might think
- PsychCentral, Rose Caiola, Brain and Mental Health Benefits of Dreaming
- Harvard studies, People spend ‘half their waking hours daydreaming’
This article is really good! “Fucking over bad luck” is something I’ve dealt with. Would have enjoyed the heads up from this article.. haha When you think about it, figures like Warren Buffett would realize, much of their success is due to luck, and as your article proves, bad luck isn’t exactly as we judge it to be.
This is a good analogy you posed, BAD LUCK IS A SHARK BITING AT YOU AND THE BLOODY WATER IS WHERE NO ONE WANTS TO SWIM
I tried liking the article BTW and the button doesn’t function.