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Are You Lucky or Unlucky?

We are all aware of the lucky things that have happened to us.

And chances are, we’re even more aware of all the unlucky things that have happened to us.

But we’re unaware of the things that have not happened to us at all, whether good or bad.

For example, here in my hometown, long-time Miami residents recite chapter and verse of what every hurricane that has hit South Florida cost them. And when a storm is on the horizon, every local TV station and smartphone is tuned to the weather. We religiously follow every twist and turn of the storm’s path, and when we can’t stand it anymore, we rush out to empty our grocery store shelves of bottled water, flashlight batteries, and canned goods.

But then, when the storm suddenly hockey sticks north and away from us, it’s quickly ignored and instantly forgotten.

We drink the water, stash the batteries with the ones we bought for the last storm, and stuff the unopened cans into our pantries.

In our case, who is lucky and unlucky might just be attributed to whether it’s an El Nino or La Nina year, or maybe to a high-pressure front pushing a storm either towards our homes or towards some other unlucky community.

In other words, what’s lucky for some can be unlucky for others.

Are You Lucky or Unlucky?

Finding a $20 bill on the ground might be lucky for you, but it wasn’t so fortunate for the person who lost it.

Of course, this idea goes way beyond luck. If it’s true that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, then it stands to reason that whether an activity is good or bad to you suggests that it might be just the opposite to someone else.

When someone wins an election, it also means someone lost.

When someone secures a contract or succeeds at an audition, it’s pretty clear that at least one other person didn’t.

This phenomenon is so common that many ways exist to describe it.

“One’s ceiling is another’s floor.”

“One’s meat is another’s poison.”

“One’s trash is another’s treasure.”

“One’s pleasure is another’s pain.”

“One’s loss is another’s profit.”

“One’s defeat is another’s victory.”

Clearly, there’s something for us to learn from both sides of this equation.

To get the best out of our wins AND our losses is simply a matter of understanding the difference between perception and perspective.

Perception is being aware of something, generally from our point of view.

Perspective is awareness of things in their proper relationship to others or their relative importance to other things.

Perception is understanding how things affect us.

Perspective is understanding how things affect others.

It’s true for business, it’s true for relationships, it’s true for politics, and it’s true for presentations. Indeed, it’s true anytime two or more people get together to try and accomplish something.

If your goal in any of those areas is to be compelling, convincing, captivating, credible, conclusive, and charismatic, your first step is to move from perception to perspective.

It’s what I wrote about in All About Them, what I talk about when I keynote at conferences, and what I truly believe makes all the difference between being common and being commanding.

If you’d like to know more about how to put this profound concept to work for you and your business, just ask…

Are You Lucky or Unlucky?