Luck (Photo credit: beancounter)Today is Friday the thirteenth--not a day we associate with good luck. In our marketing endeavors as in our everyday lives, luck can be good or bad. Most of the time luck just seems to happen--something over which we have no control. But is luck always serendipitous?
Recently a lottery mania swept the United States with the largest jackpot ever as the Mega Millions prize. One of the news reports told how the odds of winning were about one in 176 million. The report stated that one could win the over 600 million dollar jackpot by buying one ticket for each of the possible combinations of number, but pointed out the impracticality of being able to buy that many different tickets. The bottom line was that the odds of winning the lottery are not in your favor.
Marketing success has far better odds than winning the lottery, but still there is sometimes a bit of luck involved in hitting the jackpot. The more tickets you play, the more likely it is that you will come up with a winning combination. This is an extreme example for sure, but the point is that the more marketing ploys you try, the more likely it is you will hit upon a winner.
Don't be afraid to put yourself out there or to try unusual ideas to get your product noticed. You don't have to spend a fortune to do it. Often it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time or catching the attention of the right people. Happenstance may seem random but there is a reason for everything.
Why wait for your stars to line up? Good strategizing will do a better job of lining up the odds in your favor. Be prepared for any possibilities that may come your way and be ready to jump when opportunity knocks.
The winner of a show like American Idol is not always the most talented, most attractive, or most likable contestant. The finalists are chosen from thousands who are willing to try out. Those who make the cuts may manage to get by because of chance just as much as singing ability. If it's your day to get noticed then you need to be there ready to step on stage.
A quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson says, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." You can sit back and wait for luck to just fall into your lap and you may wait for a long, long time before anything ever happens, if it ever does. Or you can get smart and get busy and make your own luck.
I'm betting on the latter to be the winning ticket.
L as in:
A blog name filled with L's is Living, Learning, and Loving. Stephanie writes about homeschooling and writing or whatever else she has something to say about.
Another blog about life is Life, the University, and Everything . This blog is a diverse site by Elizabeth McCarthy, another blogger who takes the eclectic approach.
