Is there fate, luck or opportunity?
The news that my boss Andy gave his two weeks notice spread like wildfire in the department. Everyone who reported to him was worried about who and what the next guy would be like. Will the new guy be better or worse than Andy? Everyone was concerned about how this change would affect them, including other managers who have worked with Andy. Two weeks after Andy left, while I was working on the shop floor, one of the technicians came up to me and said, “I heard you have a new boss now.”
“I?” I inspected some plastic parts coming out of a molding machine and kindly responded.
“Haven’t you heard the news yet? You and I will be working for Shaun now,” she said as her face scrunched up in discontent.
“Is it that bad?” I consulted.
“I don’t know how much you’ve worked with him, but he doesn’t deserve to be a manager,” he added, “the stars were aligned for him and the timing was right. That’s the only reason he became our boss.”
While speaking at an event at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland, I posed a question to my young audience. I asked if all they had in their life to date was through their own doing. Some agreed, while most nodded disapprovingly. Continuing my discussion, some audience members described how lucky they are to have something in their life that they just received and never had to work for. When I asked them what they thought gave them the things they hold dear, they used the words luck, destiny, and chance.
I want to share my thoughts on luck, fate or chance using the personal experience I shared with you earlier about my boss Andy and his departure. Andy made a conscious decision to quit and move somewhere else. So Andy created what he wanted through his action. However, Andy’s action also resulted in the creation of a vacant position in the department. It would be foolish to say that Shawn intended that.
Shawn got the job by his own action?
It can be argued that, like Andy, Shawn made a conscious decision to take the position, so he created what he wanted through his action. Yes. But an intricate component of this scenario is that the decision made by one person (Andy) impacted what the other person (Shawn) got. That is what we call destiny, luck or opportunity.
Each of us experiences this phenomenon in our personal relationship or professional career at some point in our lives. Think about experiences from your life or from someone you know. That relationship you wanted so badly with someone, but it never worked (or when it worked perfectly). The job or career advancement you longed for and worked so hard for never came to fruition (or when it turned out exactly as you intended). Undeniably, there is a certain lack of control that we all experience with people and events in all arenas of our lives. But it is this very lack of control that plays such a large role in the choices we do (or don’t) make that ultimately dictate what we get (or don’t get) in all areas of our lives. This unknown or “out of our control” aspect of our lives is fate, luck, or chance. However, there is a key component that keeps our destiny, luck or opportunity alive. Only when we act does our destiny, luck, or chance have a chance to work out as well. All beings (plants, animals, you and me) at all levels of evolution follow this principle. If all the ingredients necessary for the growth of a seed are available to it, however, if it does not do what it must do to sprout, it irrevocably remains in the same state it was in. Whatever you choose to call it: fate, luck, or chance without your action, the fate of your luck, fate, or chance is dead.