Work for Luck – A Little Work Never Hurt Anyone

By play it by ear Charles L Harmon

Work for luck – they say a little work never hurt anyone.

If you want to boost your chances of having good luck then it doesn’t hurt to work for luck. I’m saying that, but others before me have said the same thing in many other ways.

Working for luck is not the goal. Its just that working may be a help in bringing you luck. Even just being in work could put in the right place at the right time.

It could help you meet people who might influence your luck or help in some unseen way. I cannot be the exception to this, but more than once my work or job was the place where a stroke of good luck occurred for me.

 

Being on the Job Changed my Luck

Here’s one instance where being on the job changed my luck for the better. I had been a computer operator for three years, but quit my job.

I had a rather good and interesting job that I liked. In order to finish my last class in college so I could graduate I unfortunately I had to quit my job.

After graduation I looked for a programming job for eighteen months.

I never found one. I had decided not to take another computer operator job because it was essentially a dead end job.

I finally gave up the idea of getting a programming job; I needed a job by then so I decided to go back into electronics, my former occupation before I became a computer operator.

Oh, I should mention I made a good living betting on horses during those 18 months.

I went on three interviews and got three job offers. I took the one closest to me and also the most challenging. It was a senior electronics technician position.

I diagnosed the problems and repaired faulty aircraft navigation computers. About nine months into the job I received a phone call at work. It was a headhunter.

head hunter – A person who seeks employment for another person, often by contract.

He asked me if I wanted a programming job. I told him I gave up looking because everyone wanted experience but I knew some programming. However, I never had a job doing that.

He assured me if I went to the company he represented I would get the job. Having nothing to lose I make the trek to Los Angeles and interviewed for a programming trainee job at TransAmerica Insurance.

Amazingly I got the job! I never found out how that headhunter got my phone number at work since I never gave it out and very few people knew I even worked there.

It turned out that hundreds of people had applied for that job and only 11 were selected. I was one of them. Was that good luck or what? That started my 30 year career as a programmer/analyst and consultant.

Some think working hard can bring you good luck. I wouldn’t want to bet on that, but there are people that have gained success by hard work.

Sometimes you’ll hear stories about people from other countries coming to the USA, working hard, and becoming a big success. I know quite a few people in that category.

Probably way more than chance would indicate. It is true, it definitely does happen, but not to everyone.

 

Quotes about Working or Luck

There are lots of quotes about luck and a few about work and luck. Whether you believe in luck or more specifically that work or hard work increases your chance of having good luck, many people do.

Here are a few quotes about work and or luck.

• Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work. ~ Booker T. Washington
• Nothing will work unless you do. ~ Maya Angelou
• Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~ Thomas A. Edison


Hanging a horseshoes is thought to bring good luck. However in this picture the open ends are down. The open ends should be up otherwise the luck will run out.

• The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. ~ Vince Lombardi
• There is no substitute for hard work. ~ Thomas A. Edison
• Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard. ~ George Lucas
• Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work – and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t. ~ Lucille Ball
• I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it. ~ Ray Bradbury



• The harder I work, the luckier I get. ~ Samuel Goldwyn
• Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get. ~ Ray Kroc
• The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work. ~ Harry Golden
• My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
• Good things happen to those who hustle. ~ Chuck Noll
• Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work. ~ Horace
• All wealth is the product of labor. ~ John Locke



• If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come. ~ Lawrence Welk
• The harder you work… and visualize something, the luckier you get. ~ Seal
• There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. ~ Colin Powell
• The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream. ~ Tommy Hilfiger

 

 

Superstitions, Thoughts, and Sayings about Luck

There are lots of superstitions about luck and who knows, all of us are probably superstitious to some extent. That’s probably true even if we don’t believe in superstitions.

A quick example is the habit of crossing our fingers or sometimes we knock on wood to help bring good luck.

If not good luck at least hope that whatever we’ve done works, or did I make the right decision, etc. You get the point. Here are a few superstitions involving familiar actions and luck.

• Care and diligence bring luck. ~ Thomas Fuller
• We often call a certainty a hope, to bring it luck. ~ Elizabeth Bibesco
• I don’t rely on feng shui. I believe hard work brings us good luck and success. ~ John Gokongwei
• History can bring luck: this is what we can call optimism. ~ Stephane Hessel
• I only wear red socks in the kitchen. They bring me luck. ~ Graham Elliot
• Friday the 13th. Everyone’s heard of this, that day is an unlucky day.
• Make a wish on a wishbone. It’s supposed to bring one good luck.
• Knock on wood. Its done to ward off bad luck after tempting fate.
• Breaking a mirror. That’s a surefire way to bring yourself seven years of bad luck.
• Bad luck comes in threes. A couple things go wrong, then believers start looking for the next bit of bad luck.
• A rabbit’s foot brings you luck. Its a Talisman or amulet, a time-honored way of fending off evil.



• Don’t walk under a ladder. Although very practical if a person is on the ladder, its roots are from medieval times and older.
• Beginner’s luck. The idea that newbies are likely to win when they try out a sport, game or activity the first time.
• Find a penny, pick it up. Do this, and all day long you’ll have good luck.
• A black cat crossing your path. It’s a sign of bad luck.
• 666. Three sixes in a row is a superstition that harks back to the Bible. In the Book of Revelation, 666 is given as the number of the “beast,” and is often interpreted as the mark of Satan and a sign of the end times.

Do any of these ring a bell or sound familiar to you?

 

Sometimes a Chance Coincidence can be Lucky

Sometimes just meeting a person, in person or not, can turn out to be good (or bad) luck. Here’s an incident that happened to me that turned out to be very good luck for me.

As an amateur radio operator I spent lots of evenings on my short wave radio and transmitter listening and talking to people around the world.

One evening from my amateur radio station in my garage I heard a very strong signal on my shortwave receiver. I contacted them and started talking to a person.

We had a fairly long conversation. He happened to be in Southern California relatively close to me. We talked about all sorts of things, but the conversation eventually turned to electronics.

I told him I had a lot of experience in electronics, but not paid experience. I wanted to be an electronics technician. I was a precision assembler for electronics parts at the time.

However, I desperately wanted to use some of my knowledge in electronics. We talked a little about electronics, but he had to sign off.

Before he did, he asked me to come to his office the next morning. I asked where he worked.

It turned out he worked in the same company as I did, but he worked upstairs with the engineers. I didn’t know the engineers because they all worked upstairs and never hung out with us peon assemblers (my feelings about my position).

To make a much longer story short, that gentleman happened to be the head engineer in charge of the engineering department where I worked. He interviewed me and offered me a job as an electronics technician.

I started designing power supplies for the company. That started my career as an electronic technician which I wanted to be at that time.

It led to technician jobs at Xerox, Bendix Electrodynamics, Hoffman Aviation, and others.

That chance connection on my ham radio changed my life and career. It gave me a big boost in salary, opportunity, and prestige.

 

Whatever your Work consider it Helpful

Although my experiences regarding work and the good luck that happened to me while working, my fortunate connections, and there were more not mentioned, are not yours, take heart and know good luck can also happen to you.

No one knows in advance about lucky coincidences, good fortunes, or lifelong friendships. There are infinite possibilities of good luck that can occur just by being at the right place at the right time. In reality you cannot work for luck. Luck, good or bad, seems to just happen.

There are different interpretations and thoughts about luck. In reality you cannot work for luck. Luck, good or bad, seems to just happen.

But maybe, just maybe, working, being at work, working at home might just be the instrument or place where a stroke of good luck happens to you. Keep an open mind and good luck might flow in.

If you’ve had any good work luck experience while at work or due to work, please leave a comment below.