“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
These are the words spoken by one of the founding fathers of America, Benjamin Franklin. The author Ashwin Sanghi concludes the “13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck” with the last trait of Lucky person, Leverage. Lucky people are those people are plan in advance and are prepared for the bad situation. They are very punctual with their work and have everything prioritised. They become successful as they use their potential (strength) to their maximum advantage, even in the worst situation.
In short, Lucky people leverage preparation, planning, prioritization and potential. By doing so, they increase the ability to create opportunities or react and respond to them.
To explain the above traits, author has used various examples of British politician John Wilkes, Winston Churchill, American president Bill Clinton on preparing in advance, bestselling author Amish Tripathi, Indian businessman Ghanshyamdas Birla on planning and prioritizing their work. The example of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister helps us to understand importance of punctuality, while example of Harland Sanders (founder of KFC), Jack Cover nuclear physicist, Sunil Bharti Mittal (founder Bharti Enterprises), Sachin & Binny Bansal (founders of Flipkart) explains about their leverage not only their planning and preparation, but also their potential (strengths).
The story which interested me is – Three fish lived in a pond, Planahead, Thinkfast and Waitandsee. One day they heard a fisherman say he would e casting his net in their pond the next day.
Planahead said, “I am swimming down the river tonight.” Thinkfast said, “I am sure I will come up with a plan.” Waitandsee said, “I just can’t think about it now I’m tired.”
When the fisherman cast his nets the next day, Planahead was already further down the river and thus remained free. Unfortunately Thinkfast and Waitandsee were caught by the fisherman.
Thinkfast quickly rolled belly-up and pretended to be dead. ‘Oh, this fish is no good.’ said the fisherman and threw it safely back into the water. Unfortunately Waitandsee ended up in the fish market.
That is why people say, ‘In times of danger, when the net is cast, plan ahead or plan to think fast!’
subodh anjal 