Luck
I’m not sure if this happens to you, but on an almost daily basis my whole world freezes for a second and I think, “wow, I’m really lucky”. This exclamation is usually the result of something awesome happening at work, me getting a glimpse of Mimi being her beautiful self when she doesn’t know I’m watching her or even something as literally small as Phyllis jumping up and sitting on my lap and looking at me with drowsy eyes. Purring. (love that)
I truly feel that everything in my life is a miracle, and that I’m lucky as hell. BUT, just before moving to Colorado I had a conversation with my dad while riding in his car (this is usually where he and I share honest feelings, probably because we can look at the road while sharing them). During this chat I said something like, “wow, I’m really lucky!” and he said, “you are, but you have to take some of the credit here, you worked very hard to be where you are”. I fancy myself a pretty with-it cat, yet for some reason I hadn’t thought of it that way.
Here’s the point: When something you’ve worked very hard for actually blossoms into a big fat blooming success, that’s not luck. When you’ve made a conscious choice to put everything you have in this world towards a goal and you do, in fact, achieve it, that’s not luck either. When you sacrifice a plethora of easy options for a handful of hard ones, without acknowledging the possibility of failure, that is not luck. Calling it luck is selling it short.
Granted, I’m lucky that my parents stayed together and I’m lucky that they taught by example how married adults should treat each other. I’m lucky that my stupid spine surgery worked out and I can climb mountains again. Most importantly, I’m lucky that others see in me things that I will never see in myself. I really *am lucky.
On the shittiest day, while sitting at my desk at work I still know that I have it good. In my worst argument with Mimi, I know that nothing could be so important that it should come permanently between us. This is the luck I’m talking about; I’m lucky that I know that I’m lucky.
I managed a jazz club/creole restaurant in NYC when I was 22. While it was happening it felt like the most amazing opportunity ever, and then one day, it didn’t. I woke up and realized that if I stayed working there another day it would be too long, and that I needed to make a drastic change. I put in my notice before finding another job, much to the chagrin of my parents, (probably because they feared I would soon be asking for financial help). However, this choice led me to Spaeth Design and my good friend Quinn O’Sullivan, which in turn gave me the biggest challenge of my career up to that point. It was while I was working at Spaeth that Jake Nickell happened to visit NYC and I got to show him my insanely creative office. He was impressed and that tour is something that I believe led to my job at Threadless.
At the end of the day, luck can only take you so far. The rest is up to you.
