Stories 'n stuff with Mr T: The True Nature of Luck

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Thomas Jefferson

A rabbit's foot. A number, a color, a date, an email. All promise to bring you luck if you rub it, or write it or do something on it. But are they really lucky?

Luck is mostly happenstance; that is, being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. Good luck is usually the result of being able to take advantage of happenstance, or putting yourself in position to be lucky by working hard to get there.

Example: My dad's family was so poor when he was growing up (it was in the middle of the Great Depression and his parents didn't speak English, so they could only get very low paying jobs), that he used to go down to the farmer's market every morning to pick up the vegetables dropped by the produce trucks in order to help feed the family. When he was old enough, he joined the Army Air Corps and became a pilot. When he left, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill, which helped him pay his way through college, and later, to buy his first house.

After becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college, my dad started his own business. In order to find clients, he started knocking on the doors of the businesses near his. One of his first clients was a well-known San Francisco character name Enrico Banducci. Banducci owned, among other things, a nightclub called the Hungry I. Banducci was so happy with my dad's work that he introduced him to the managers of the performers who appeared at the Hungry I. These introductions lead my dad to several very big clients including some of the most famous entertainers in the world.

(ENRICO BANDUCCI: 1922-2007 / The impresario of North Beach
The legacy of Enrico Banducci

Just a few of the well-known performers whose careers got an early boost from Enrico Banducci and the hungry i: (top row) comedians Bill Cosby, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Bob Newhart, Dick Gregory, Shelley Berman, Lenny Bruce, (bottom row) the Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick), Irwin S. Corey and Ronnie Schell; singers Barbra Streisand and the Kingston Trio (from left, Dave Guard, Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane). Chronicle File Photos)

My dad went from being dirt poor to becoming a multi-millionaire. Was this luck? No. It was a combination of hard work, being in right place at the right time and taking advantage of it.

A Park School example:

A few years ago, Park had a student named Davis Bentley. Davis is a great kid who always has a smile on his face. He also loves to ride a bike. I used to see him, when he was in 4th grade, riding up Railroad Grade, by himself, late in the afternoon after school. Years later, I still see him on the road of Marin, only now, he is just a blur as he rides much faster than I can.

"My goal," he once told me, "is to ride in the Tour de France."

Davis may get his chance. Because of his outstanding performances in both road and mountain bike races, he is now, at the age of 16, a member of the US National Jr Cycling Team. Is it luck? Or hard work and dedication to doing something he really loves?