No, they're not lucky, they’re intentional.

Last year towards the end of the year, I traveled back to my family and along with the festivities, we also had deep conversations about life. Among the things we talked about, there were very triggering topics we all hadn't been comfortable discussing before. In the heat of the moment, we may have raised our voices above each other.

One particular statement from one of my siblings cooled me down. She said,

“You're only saying that because you're lucky.”

Wow!

I paused because I was so shocked at how someone would simply define my journey as mere circumstances of luck.

Within the year, I've had several conversations with different people regarding luck that have always reminded me of that encounter with my family,

Just like one of my siblings, different people perceive success as luck, and honestly, I am not surprised anymore.

We usually see a lot of people celebrating their successes; an athlete like Joshua Cheptegei or another person starting a new job in a new city, signing a new contract, a couple getting their dream wedding and moving into their dream house, etc.

What we see is just the tip of the iceberg, but what we do not realize is that there are sleepless nights, injuries, long days of hard work, tries and errors, rejections, heartbreaks, and nights of loneliness until the right one came along, all lying beneath.

In my understanding, luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation, spiced by God’s blessings.

Other people if not most interpret luck as a force that brings good or bad fortune highly influencing the outcome of a situation.

There are a lot of other perspectives people push down just to make other people feel like their hard work wasn't worth it, it was merely luck.

One thin line among people that celebrate these successes regularly is that they were intentional from day 1 about what they wanted out of that job, career, sport, marriage, etc.

It takes commitment, discipline, resilience, and dedication to become an MVP.

It's doing the work, reading self-help books, and reaching out for resources that shape who one aspires to become.

It's being disciplined enough to take the long road than a shortcut, to embrace the lessons learned while on the long road.

It is allowing room for growth and feedback and having a teachable spirit to unlearn old habits and learn new ones.

It is doing the work required, being brave, and stepping out of the comfort space; to understand that it has to be harder before it gets easier.

It's more than just sitting back and waiting for the universe to come and be nice to you because you're simply a good person, or have a pretty face or your family is unprivileged and needs saving.

It is showing up fiercely to take on life's challenges without the hopes of being spoon-fed.

It is taking small gradual steps that move you in the direction of where you intend to be, day by day that gets you ready to be able to grab that opportunity when it finally knocks.

And behold, success awaits.

So the next time, you see someone winning at anything, resist the urge to say naive statements like “oh, you're so lucky!” because it is such an understatement and a downplay of all the effort one has put in to be in such an admirable place.

…adios.