I heard that quote from a one-man play this past weekend, “The Branch Rickey Story.” Mr. Rickey was a baseball executive in the early to mid-20th century. His greatest innovation was the baseball farm system, whereby young talent is recruited and developed for the major leagues. But his greatest accomplishment was the integration of baseball by introducing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But back to that quote. How often do you hear people express their dismissive sentiments that someone else’s good fortune was really just a matter of luck? I believe, and others who plan their designs on a regular basis know, that it was hard work and risk. How does that ability to design by planning play out over one’s life? Whether it is planning in your teens, preparing for college, then at college and perhaps post-graduate work, and then into the business world. How much planning does one do to increase the odds (okay, that’s an admission that there is still such a thing as luck) of achieving the desired outcome? Planning at any and every stage, increases the opportunity of achieving your outcome.