Mike:

I cannot answer for Dien on what he meant as luck. I can, however, mention my understanding on where I think this "luck" is in her story.

She just happened to be good with the kitchen tools.

She just happened to pick a business idea (market) that was profitable. (After all, she did no "plan" or research before hand.)

She just happened to already have teaching skills.

These certainly are all things that can be learned or discovered. But she just happened to have them all and they just happened to all fall into place nicely.

That confluence is what I think is seen as luck.

Other people would have to go out of their way to acquire/discover/learn what she already possessed.

To add to this... she had a husband who was not only supportive emotionally and in an encouraging way, he was supportive financially.

Many people are trying to start businesses while also supporting themselves. Dividing their energies.

It's like the "stars" of the "alternate" sports - BMX tricks, skateboard, etc. These "kids" are supported while they practice and get good enough to earn enough money to support themselves.

How good would we become at any skill if someone else where to support us while we devoted 8 hours a day to learning and mastering that skill?

Along these lines we have the Cheescake Woman. You know... the single mom who was living in her car who went on to open a whole chain of cheesecake stores.

A normal single mom working to support herself and child and get ahead in life, would find it hard to duplicate the other woman's success.

Single mom on welfare does not need to spend 8 hours a day at a job. She is being supported while she goes about trying her business.

The fact she was living in a car got her tremendous free press.

The single working mom would most likely not be able to get such free press. She would most likely not be able to devote 8 hours a day to prefecting her cheesecake recipe or even marketing it.

So, from her point of view, the welfare single mom had luck on her side - was being supported, happened to have a "story" which would generate loads of free press and just happened to have a killer recipe.

Again, some of this can be learned and some (press) can be created. But in her case, everything just happened to fall in to place. And everything just happened to work out while she wasn't looking for it.

I other words... success found her while she was not looking.

To those who continually strive for success, her story, and countless others just like it, appear to be based on luck.

Bill Gates' mom just happened to know the IBM boss, for example.

There are plenty such examples... IF we choose to look for them.

But why look for them? Doesn't looking for such examples simply become a means to justify why you aren't the success you desire to be? (Look, how can I ever succeed because everyone who is successful was only successful because of some blind luck and I cannot duplicate what they did.)

Instead of looking for those who, from your point of view, appear to have something you call luck, and then using it as an excuse as to why it will never happen to you, why not ask...

How can I duplicate what they did?

In the Pampered Chef case... join her company and acquire the party plan selling skills. Then try to sell other things by party plan learning the skills you get from Pampered Chef.

Or

as we have said many times on this board...

take stock of yourself. What you have available to you NOW by way of skills, resources and contacts, and ASK yourself how you can use what you already have to become a success?

After all... if you were to truly model Dorris, you would do what she did at the core... use her existing skills and jump into a business which matched those skills.

You may just find... you also become the overnight success after 15 years and then others can look at you and remark how lucky you are.

Michael Ross
There is no luck but that which we make


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