We have all heard or overheard stories about how one person would attribute someone else’s success to luck.

The common phrased used would be, “He’s just so lucky!”

But here’s a real question: what has luck got to do with it?

Sure, there are lucky millionaires out there, but luck does not pick and choose.

Whether you’re a Poor John earning RM3,000 a month or an Average Joe earning RM10,000 a month, anyone can get lucky.

Take, for example, the famous story of a tool and die maker who stumbled upon a painting worth US$1.2 million that he bought for only US$30 at a flea market.

What’s even more surprising was the story of a farmer living in Suffolk, England who lost his hammer in one of his fields, and during his search, found a staggering amount of Roman Empire era jewelry, cutlery, coins, and statues worth US$2 million.

Even though these are very rare and special cases, what’s not so impressive are lottery wins.

Winning the lottery is almost never associated with good fortune. There is no doubt that lottery winners are lucky but they are prone to becoming targets of people with malicious intent.

Most of them tend to lose it all on trivial things anyway, just like professional athlete Mike Tyson.

This kind of behaviour is supported by the 2005 documentary, ‘Reversal of Fortune’, in which a homeless person is given U$100,000 to spend whatever he wishes.

Since he didn’t have a financial plan, all of his newfound wealth was spent within a couple of weeks.

Luck is self-made

In 2011, 15-year-old Nick D’Aloisio made US$30 million dollars from an app called Summly, which he made in his bedroom. He sold the app to Yahoo and became the youngest and richest student-cum-entrepreneur overnight.

However, instead of just spending it all, he decided to invest it in a trust fund managed by his parents.

Is this what you call luck? Evidently not.

Before his success, D’Aloisio made his first app, Trimit, and in a bid to get it moving, he bombarded tech website Gizmodo with emails regarding the newly-invented app.

Unsurprisingly, Gizmodo felt harassed by this and decided to feature his creation on their worst apps list.

This most certainly caused D’Aloisio a lot of pain and sadness, but a few months later, he successfully created Summly.

The rest, as they say, is history. This just goes to show D’Aloisio’s devotion to making that ‘luck’ happen.

Making ‘luck’ happen

“Luck is a product of process, action, work, and being out there”, said the author of ‘The Millionaire Fastlane’ M J DeMarco.

For people who don’t believe in hard work but in quick payoffs, it is easy to think that only the rich get lucky.

However, when you do something long enough and hard enough, luck comes as a direct result.

D’Aloisio wasn’t born with the knowledge to create algorithms. Everybody sees the money he made but not the process of learning such a hard subject.

Most people who want to achieve health through luck don’t want to go through the process and end up spending thousands of dollars a year on lotteries, hoping to hit the jackpot.

Being at the right place and at the right time no longer becomes a question of luck if you’ve taken the right steps.

People like Bill Gates may have invented something out of pure luck according to Average Joe or Poor John, but what about his company? A whole company cannot be built solely on luck!

The bottom line is, there is no magic pill or easy system that can ensure the production of wealth for you. If you’ve gone through the process and worked hard to put yourself out there, opportunities will come.

Those who say “this magic diet pill will make you lose weight without lifting a finger” are scamming people who don’t want to exercise and work hard, as people will always look for the easy way out.

But just remember, luck did not produce Apple, Facebook, Google, or even Genting.

All that was needed was hard work, patience and perseverance.

This article first appeared in kclau.com

KC Lau’s first book Top Money Tips for Malaysians has sold thousands of copies. He launched the first online personal finance course specifically designed for Malaysians, entitled the Money Automation System. He also co-founded many other online financial courses including the Bursa Method, Property Method, Founder Method and REIT Method.