Do You Believe In Bad Luck

Learning Bharatnatyam, an Indian classical dance form, since the age of 5 has taught me perseverance and the importance of hard work —characteristics that will allow me to achieve my ultimate goal of becoming a doctor. This passion for medicine parallels my early journey through dance and has been reinforced by memorable experiences along the way. One of my earliest experiences involved a childhood friend who battled a brain tumor for nearly three years before succumbing to her illness. To me, her loss was heightened by a sense of unfairness—she was too young to have been robbed of her life before she truly had a chance to live. These thoughts followed me through adolescence as my mother also began to face a variety of health problems. Seeing how much disease and pain robs an individual of their essential nature frightened me and made me feel helpless.

By definition, success is a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. How an individual reaches the point of success is “not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are” (285). Throughout the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the pieces of the secret to success are put together. Three parts of success include pure luck, the amount of time and effort put into working to achieve your goal and where you come from.

“What could I say to you that would be of value except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” (113) Siddhartha, a book written by Hermann Hesse, is about this young boy who throughout the book grows to an old man who, throughout his journey, seeks to attain enlightenment. He comes from a Brahmin family and later decides to become a samana and lives in the woods with his “shadow”,Govinda. Siddhartha is distracted with obstacles throughout his life and ultimately finds a way to conquer them.

There have been many teachers in one’s lifetime, some more important than others. These teachers and instructors affect different people in different ways, and lessons are learned that are important to prepare for real life situations. In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, a young Brahmin named Siddhartha is not content with his current spiritual self. Siddhartha is directed to spiritual enlightenment and Nirvana because of his guidance and teaching from Kamala, Kamaswami, and Vasudeva.

Constitutive luck, according to Nagel, refers to “the kind of person you are, where this is not just a question of what you deliberately do, but of your inclinations, capacities, and temperament.” The idea here is that who we are is influenced by many factors, such as our parents or culture, that are out of our control and, if such is true, then who we are is largely a matter of luck. People can be selfish, cowardly, conceited, and so on simply because they were raised as such. These vices, which are seemingly out of our control, condition a person to have certain feelings under certain circumstances. Whether or not we act on our vices

I believe everyone can be successful, if they put their mind to something. Sometimes in life people feel like they are not good at anything, but they don’t try to pursue anything. A lot of the problem is that they don’t practice. A person has to practice and work hard to get to a success level they want to be at.

There are times in life that we attribute good luck to our hard work, dedication or talent but there are some other times when we can say that luck is just a chance that we get. As we can see on the work of this two authors James H. Austin the author of “Four kinds of chance” published in Saturday Review and Robert H. Frank author of “why luck matters much more than you think” published in The Atlantic (May 2016) they show the reader how chances can influence in different ways. After reading their work I consider Robert H Frank article more effectively fulfills his thesis.

Why can't you be successful? Maybe the only reason people are successful is simply because of luck. Benjamin Franklin once stated that diligence is the mother of good luck. While there are factors in our lives that can’t be controlled, ultimately it’s up to the individual to overcome their obstacles. With that being said many of the factors that can not be controlled can expand an individual's success.

Siddhartha felt as if he can’t learn by just hearing the Buddha’s experiences. He believes he needs to experience these things himself to truly reach his own self. As Siddhartha leaves the Buddha, he realizes something different inside of him. He no longer needs a teacher. From his teachers, he was able to discover the Self. Siddhartha says “Truly, nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self … that I am Siddhartha" (38) However, he only succeeded in fleeing from it. He was consumed in finding the self, that he lost sight of it. Instead, he realizes that "I [Siddhartha] will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha" (39).

Success in our careers, in our investments, and in our life decisions, both major and minor—is as much the result of random factors as the result of skill, preparedness, and hard work.

Participants in the action, some of them in parts that are minor and seem insignificant, contribute one by one the indispensable stitches which make the pattern, and contribute them not knowing; that is to say, they act when they do not know the truth of the situation in which they act, this truth being known, however, to us who are spectators." (The Brevity of Friar Laurence, 850) The idea that Fortune dictates the course of mankind dates back to ancient times. Those writers of the medieval world incorporated the goddess Fortune into Christianity and made her God's servant, responsible for adding challenges to our lives so that we would see the importance of giving up our tumultuous earthly lives to God. The most influential treatise on the theme of Fate was The Consolation of Philosophy, written by the scholar Boethius (A.D. 475-525). Written while he awaited execution, it is a dialogue between himself and his guide 'Philosophy', who explores with him the true nature of happiness and fate, and leads him to hope and enlightenment. Here is an excerpt from Book IV:

Chance is a very interesting concept. The belief things happen unknowingly and by mere luck. In the play chance is over shadowed by fate, a pre-determined destiny. A prime example of

Success or failure in life is created by how you think. A mindset that is fixed in stone believing you either have talents and abilities or you don't leads to failure.

Success is to fulfil a goal that you have set for yourself. Achievement of success involves five components: realisation, confidence, motivation, action and perseverance. Step one is to realise your goal and how to achieve it. Step two is to have the confidence to take the steps towards your goal. Step three is to find motivation to keep you on the path towards you goal. Step four is action, the first physical step you take in the process for success. Step five is perseverance. On the road to success, you will most definitely come to setbacks and struggles. The only way to conquer those things and achieve your goal is to have strong perseverance. As David Brink said, "A successful person is one who

The first century Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” A lot of folks have echoed that sentiment over the millennia. Luck favors those who don’t depend upon it. Sure, some things are mostly about luck. Las Vegas comes to mind. But mostly, we must make our own luck by taking advantage of every opportunity we recognize or create.