I walked into a room not to long ago and overheard someone talking about me. “He is soooo lucky…”

Damn. I know I have been blessed. But for all the work I have put in, I was a little pissed to have my hard work be dismissed so easily as “Luck”. Then I had to get my head straight - it was just another self defeating hater.

See, what this person didn’t know was that you have to prepare to be lucky. My dad used to tell me “You better have your sh*t together before you start”. He would say this before I attempted anything I wanted to do. Even before getting married. He was right.

What he was saying is that you need to make sure you have your game lined up. You want to be rich? Start by eliminating waste. Once you eliminate waste - and for those who don’t know, waste is spending your money on anything you don’t NEED. You don’t need that Mocha in the morning. You don’t need that cigarette. You don’t need that drink. You don’t need that purse. You don’t need those rims.

But we are talking about budgeting and I will get into that in another post. What we are talking about now is preparation for success.

So, now you have eliminated unnecessary expenses - PAY OFF YOUR DEBT. I had to do both of these things to be “Lucky” enough to buy my first home. At that time my rent was $1,000 a month. I eliminated $500 from my budget. I bought my house and my mortgage was $1400. I still had an extra $100 to put into savings.

I wasn’t lucky - I was smart. I bought that house, lived in it for 2 years. The housing market was taking off and I rode it to the top and sold that house. I doubled my money.

Yeah, I was blessed with a quick moving market. You can even say I was lucky to have made so much money on that house. But had I not prepared, saved the money, eliminated my debt and prepared to buy the house that I knew would be a good investment for me - I wouldn’t have gotten lucky.

I can’t tell you how many times I have made an important contact because I ask “what do you do?” upon meeting someone new, and then giving them my card. My answer to this same question “I run businesses”. It’s not a matter of pride or bragging - but it always makes them ask you questions. That opens the door for opportunities.

When you succeed, people will call you lucky. It is how they justify their own failure to succeed.

The fact that you have spent all your time preparing and planning for your success doesn’t seem to count to them.

Luck, my friends, is in the preparation. If you are prepared, you will be lucky. If you are open to opportunity - opportunities will find you.

To be lucky you have to be prepared. Luck does not happen by chance. Luck favors the prepared person and showers her love on the smart. Think about that the next time you dismiss someone’s success as luck.