Luck, good or bad, has little to do with your success

The ups and downs of a professional life, either as an employee and even more so as an entrepreneur, are quite often blamed on luck. If something positive happens it is good luck and if something negative happens it is bad luck.

This language is unfortunate as it implies that large portions of a person’s professional life are out of their hands. Although there are some external events in which that is always the case, this does not mean that one has no control. Indeed, how one prepares for, recognises and responds to these events can alter the outcomes completely.

A helpful change in language can go a long way to improving one’s ability to manage unforeseen external events. Instead of calling them good luck and bad luck it is useful instead to call them opportunities and challenges. This small change immediately reframes the issue in a manner that accepts the randomness of external events but still allows for the possibility that, although the event is uncontrollable, the outcome can still be influenced if not managed.

The next step is understanding why good luck needs to be managed. The answer is that any single positive outcome usually needs several steps leading to it, and good luck will befall only one of those steps.

An example to illuminate these points is arguably the greatest opportunity that has befallen any company in history: the request by IBM for Microsoft to provide an operating system for its newly launched PCs in 1981.

There does not seem to be a single authoritative record of what happened, but it seems that when IBM went to the main operating system developer – Digital Research, which declined the job – the company turned instead to Microsoft.

First, Microsoft listened to IBM even though it had no operating system to sell; second, it realised that there was the opportunity for massive revenue even though the PC market was forecast to fail; and third, it responded by accepting the deal and going into the market to buy an operating system as the basis for the software that they would develop.

The ability for a person to listen with an open mind, especially when the subject matter is not their expertise, is truly astounding. The human mind naturally rejects novel ideas as they depart from what is known, which inherently increases uncertainty. This is why creativity is normally crushed in corporate culture.

It is, however, possible to train your mind to remain open. A first step is noticing the vehemence of your response – the angrier and more emotional you are, the more likely that your brain has switched off. The second warning signal is attacking people as opposed to the argument, such as telling someone that they do not understand or otherwise have no right to an opinion.

The second step that Microsoft took was recognising potential. This impulse, too, suffers in a closed mind for the same reasons: An opportunity is by definition different from the norm and so carries risk. If you cannot accept change, if you cannot imagine new scenarios then you will never recognise opportunities and will be doomed to stumble around blindly at the mercy of the rising tide of a growing economy, mistaking a bull market for managerial talent. Getting used to moving out of your comfort zone is the only way you can grow.

The final step that Microsoft took was proactive action. It is one thing to become comfortable enough with risk to accept novel ideas. It is a quantum leap to accept the risk that comes with making decisions and taking action. As the UAE continues its rapid integration in the global economy, its private companies will face ever greater pure capitalistic pressure, both regulatory as well as from the market. This makes it imperative that the private sector evolves and takes true risk based on proactive decisions.

The focus so far has been on taking advantage of opportunities, and that is because it is the less understood face of luck. The three main steps to containing challenges are recognition, acceptance and response.

Failures happen immediately in the first step. Although problems can be quite quickly recognised at the executive level this information is rarely, if ever, raised in a timely manner to the board. Such behaviour will continue as long as such executives are allowed to remain involved in the company after exhibiting such behaviour.

Acceptance seems to be a bigger problem as boards and executives remain frozen in initial thinking patterns, hoping that the problem is not real or information is faulty. The final step is response. Once acceptance is achieved then response is usually quick but unfortunately inappropriate in scale. Courageous enough to act, too fearful to do so in an appropriate manner.

Deconstructing opportunities and challenges into their constituent parts should help professionals and firms better manage these events as they take place. It also works for your personal life.

Sabah Al Binali is an active investor and entrepreneurial leader, with a track record of financing, building and growing companies in the Mena region. You can read more of his thoughts at al-binali.com

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