Limelight: Luck is no lady By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Watching the new, young, vigorous President of the US, masterfully manipulating the media, the Congress, the world, is both amusing and alarming. Last week we saw him ambulating and manoeuvering, hustling and hedging, shifting and drifting, hopping and jumping from The Tonight Show, to ESPN, to Sixty Minutes, to three Town Hall Meetings, plus one On-Line, 2 Press Conferences, a meeting with "the Arnold," Governor of bankrupt California, then back to Washington DC. The world watches and listens in awe. This is one lucky guy! How many more deserving, white or black, men or women, could be and should be filling his shoes. Why is he the one? Is it just luck, providence, destiny, kismet, karma, fate, or is there more? Are you lucky? Most will give a prompt answer -- negative or positive. Yet, it is not a simple question. It is quite complicated - so complicated in fact that the psychology department at the University of Hertfordshire in England, headed by Richard Wiseman, in collaboration with the Perrot-Warwick Research Unit spent eight years studying the subject. What makes some people lucky and others not? After conducting hundreds of experiments, thousands of interviews, and millions of questions, they claim to have cracked the code. What a break for all of us unlucky folk, now we can all be lucky -- right!? Well, maybe! In his book The Luck Factor: Changing Your Life. The Four Essential Principles (2003) Wiseman claims that being relaxed will enable you to see opportunities everywhere. Here are four principles that the unlucky lot can learn in order to change their fortunes. 1) We should maximize chance opportunities, that is, to be open to new experiences, take risks and see opportunities in new things. 2) "Go with your instincts." Lucky people rely heavily on their gut feelings, rather than on rational analysis. 3) "Practice counter --factual thinking:" example - if you are in a car accident, you should feel lucky you are alive rather than unlucky your car was wrecked. 4) "Expect good fortune." Look on the bright side and, over time, the expectations become a fulfilling prophecy. Roughly, this is the result of 8 years of research. Lucky people instinctively think positively. Their minds operate differently. Unlucky people are the driven ones, the focused, the hard-working. Surprise, surprise! And here we thought that those traits were essential requirements for success. If you can learn and apply those four principles, do you believe your luck will turn? Is that not the old familiar classic notion of 'positive thinking?' "Yes" asserts Wiseman, "It is not dumb luck why some people always seem to find fortune -- they see it." He explains further: "Most people are just not open to what is around them -- that's the key." What about the person who walks down the street and a brick falls on his head? He was happy, positive, relaxed, and optimistic, so why does he end up in the hospital? What has luck got to do with it? Psychologists explain that that is chance, and chance and luck are two different things. Whatever! Where does that leave us? Right back where we started Some are born with the right kind of personality. These positive, happy, optimists get the jobs, find the opportunities, meet the right people, get the good breaks. Is luck therefore a fallacy? Certainly, specific elements contribute to creating an environment of success, but can we all apply them? Are we ultimately responsible for what happens to us? What about those clever, intelligent, hard-working folk who never get anywhere? Is it all preordained and nothing we can do can change it? Religions, like Islam and Christianity believe in the will of a Supreme Being as the primary instigator of all earthly events. Divine Providence is a basic belief but may only be partially responsible for what happens to us. Strong emphasis is placed on our judgment and on prayer. Prayers fulfilled are the "luck" factor in religion. Voodoo practitioners believe they control luck. Gamblers need Lady Luck to be their constant companion. How often have we heard "this is my lucky number" as they roll the dice? Many of us believe in lucky colors, people, places, and numbers. Asians rely heavily on "lucky numbers." They seek them for telephones, license plates, etc, and pay good money to acquire them. No research has yet been conducted about how "lucky numbers" influence our lives. Prominent psychologists have been intrigued by the subject. Sigmund Freud was of the belief that "luck has more to do with a locus of control for events in one's life," and a subsequent escape from personal responsibility. Jean Paul Sartre thought along the same lines; the problem is us, not our luck. Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, who founded Analytical Psychology, coined the term 'synchronicity,' which he described as a "meaningful coincidence." Which is it, coincidence, personality, prayers, or "superstition?" Is that why we wish each other "good luck," perhaps enough good wishes may end up providing it. So many theories, definitions, and explanations, and yet the phenomenon of luck remains as elusive as ever. What explains a Warren Buffet, a Bill Gates, or a Barack Obama, and of old, an Alexander the Great, a Julius Caesar, or a Napoleon?!luck, timing personality, intelligence, drive, positive thinking, and the wherewithal to turn misfortune into good fortune, as in "if you get a lemon, make lemonade!" "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..." Achievers end up achieving. We must demonstrate a hunger for information, a good memory to retain it, and the courage to apply it with wisdom and discipline. Shall we then be lucky and successful -- can we all do it? Decidedly not! Some of us are more endowed than others, with the requisite qualities that catapult us to the top, or to happiness, riches, fame, or whatever goal we wish to reach. But we all need a spoonful of luck, that stuff that Obama has bushels of. Yes, we must do our part, work hard, think positively, look on the bright side, and all that, but it will not hurt to cross our fingers behind our backs, wear our lucky charms, and keep praying. So! What has luck got to do with it? Everything? Something? Nothing? Consider Obama, and go figure.... A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck James Garfield (1831 - 1881)
