Is there more to success than just good luck?

Could Gratitude be the key to good luck?

In town, there lives a man who is very well known in the community. He is a community leader, has a successful business and he has been married for over forty years to his beautiful and only wife. He has a family who love and respect him and actually like to spend time with him. He gives generously of his time and money. Many say his success is due to good luck.  

He believes he is extremely fortunate and that life and God have looked after him very well, so he says that he likes to give back and he does this all the time and he does it well, he doesn’t hold back.

He has a little weakness though; he loves to buy raffle tickets. When he buys them he doesn’t buy just one or two, he’ll buy 20 or 30 or he’ll buy the book. Now, this is important, so take note, he doesn’t buy that many to improve his chances of winning, he really doesn’t care whether he wins or not, he doesn’t do it to big note himself or show-off, NO, instead he buys them to support the cause, it’s to pay back, to express his appreciation and as an active demonstration of his gratitude. 

The strange thing is though, well not to me and those of you who understand and are guided by natural law, he nearly always wins. Maybe it’s not always first prize he wins, but always a prize, a win. It’s good luck! It’s the law at work; you see, you can’t give, without you get back in return. The books must balance, there’s no escaping it! It’s the ‘law of cause and effect’, or what some call the ‘law of attraction’.

Not surprisingly, most of what he wins gets re-donated. Because, as he says, he has everything he needs, but he does love to win, he loves playing the game.

And just here is an important side lesson to our main theme today – you’ve gotta be in it to win it – or in life as in everything – the only failure is the failure to participate.

Some call him lucky, but I think you know there is more to it than that. I was with him one night at a fund raiser when a group who also have plenty of money, but are normally not that generous, thought they would block him out, and so they bought up big and tried to buy every ticket they could get their hands on, making it hard and effectively increasing the odds for the rest of us, because as a fund raiser, they kept on bringing out more books.

Photo credit: Oceanview Med Spa via VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA

In a rural community a first prize of new set of tyres for your tractor is a valuable prize, one that most would want to win.

You wouldn’t believe it, or then again maybe you would, but he won the first three prizes. Not only did he win the tyres but he won fuel and oil to go with them. On this occasion he kept his winnings because he actually had a need and a use for them. Talk about Good Luck.

GOOD LUCK! Sure its good luck, but isn’t it said that we make our own luck by the attitudes we hold and the actions we take?  Gratitude, honestly extended and expressed, brings its own rewards and so every time he wins and not just with raffles, but in everything he does, he says Thank You. And not just once, it’s more like Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.   

Many in town say that he can only afford to be so generous because he has sooo much good luck and has a verrry successful business. I think differently, I believe he has a successful business and a happy life because of his generosity and gratitude.

So consider for yourself, is this man lucky and successful because he gives and expresses gratitude, or does he only give because he is and wants to be successful?

Funny thing is – it works either way, doesn’t it?

We also have another man in town; this man is always down on his luck. He bemoans and whinges at just about everything.  He appreciates nothing and wonders why he has so little in his life. He begrudges supporting or spending a dollar on anything in the community. He won’t buy a ticket in any raffle the other man I spoke of earlier supports, because well, “what hope has he got.” Good Luck never shines on him!

The truth is he’s just mean spirited and he expects to get without giving and wonders why he has so little. He spends a small fortune on lottery tickets, but never wins a prize. Offer him help and he will brush you aside.

It’s interesting, but I don’t think I have ever heard him say please or thank-you for anything. He just demands and then saunters off when he’s got what he’s after. He is really good at what he does, exceptional in his trade and yet his business barely hangs in there, with customers only dealing with him when they absolutely have to.

I certainly know which model I prefer to emulate.