Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.*

Or, sometimes, necessity.

My laptop crashed last week.  Just refused to boot up.  “Missing or corrupt system file.”

Dead.  Dead.  Door nail dead.

Today, I am writing this blog post on that same laptop.

I got lucky.  But I planned to be lucky.

Today’s Monday Miracle is two-fold.  It wasn’t a total hardware failure, and I was able to recover from the crash because I had the sense to be prepared for it when it came.

First, I had all of my installation disks for all of my software.  Second, I had a record of all the product keys and serial numbers that so many of them insist you enter when you try to reinstall.  Third, I had two complete and current backups of all my data.  Fourth, this happened once before—a number of years ago.

I can’t even remember whether the prior crash was this laptop or the previous one.  The point is I have experience.  And I took notes.  So, I knew what to do.

I lost some time, but nothing else.

My question to you today is are you going to plan to be lucky?  Or are you going to cross your fingers and hope everything always works out okay? (There’s a guy named Murphy that will give you good odds on that one.)

It’s not just about computers.

Do you get the oil changed in your car?  Do you know how to change a flat tire?  Does somebody have an extra key to your living space?  Have you thought about making and filing a copy of everything in your wallet?  Is your resumé up to date?  Do you have an emergency fund?  Insurance policies?

Are you reading something every day about the industry that you’re in or that you want to join?  Have you stretched yourself lately?  Learned a new skill?  Added some new people to your network?  Re-connected with some old acquaintances?

If something unforeseen happened—good or bad—are you equipped to leverage the good and minimize the bad?

Luck doesn’t just happen.  Unless you’ve got a winning lottery ticket—and even then, you had to buy it.

 

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* Seneca