Maggie's Farm

Branch Rickey - "Luck is the residue of good planning"

At a job many years ago, I did a presentation on Luck. I wish the Money magazine article I used was still around, but I haven't been able to find it.

Basically, it talked about how people make their own luck - a fact that I truly believe. My wife used to disagree with me. Until we got neighbors who were the biggest pigs she'd ever met. Slovenly, overweight, the kind of people who go out in public with stains from the food they ate on their shirts. He walked around with a nail clipper on a neck chain, and would use it on the front stoop, in public.

One day, he shows up with a puppy. Chocolate lab. You could tell the dog was going to be big. Huge, actually. And he was.

One day, the guy is sitting on the front stoop, sobbing. I asked what was wrong. "We have to move and we had to get rid of the dog. She jumped on an old man and he fell over and broke his hip. We're being sued."

I gave him some consoling words, and walked up to my apartment.
My wife, upon entering the apartment looked at me and said "OK, now I believe you. You really do make your own luck."

The old Woody Allen line is, I think, 90% of life is just showing up. I think this rings true. If you show up to work each day in a bad mood because of the commute or traffic, then change your attitude fast. I work very hard to remain positive, because I am by nature a cynic, quick with a snide remark or snarky commentary.

I don't enjoy schadenfreude, but when I was younger I reveled in it, for reasons I've long since forgotten. When I was laid off the first time, after finally getting my VP stripe, I was stunned. VP's don't get laid off! Except in, as my case, management changes. Out with the old regime, in with the new! I realize now that just doing my job wasn't enough for them to like me. I wasn't going out of my way to really HELP them make the changes they wanted.

Mainly because I disagreed with them - but that's a whole other story. Fact is, I could've agreed with their POV just fine, I'd chosen not to. And hence, after some reflection, realized my attitude needed adjustment.


Politics and grant-giving takes this out of the equation. Life is no longer about improving yourself in politics. It's about greasing palms and finding marks, and developing political clients.

It's ugly. As ugly as managing your own life is, managing a political life is like working in the sewers. You need the positive facade. That's what people see and vote for. But deep down, most of them are just disgusting.