Four kinds of fortune

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 399.

Part 2

An imperfect world

How do people advance in their careers? Besides ability and hard work, most people need luck to succeed. Life isn't logical or fair. Skill and persistence alone won't guarantee success; the best and brightest don't always land great jobs; and the hardest workers won't necessarily be promoted.

This doesn't mean that you don't have to plan your job search or career strategy. On the contrary, you're more likely to succeed if you follow a plan. But pivotal changes in people's lives often have little to do with their plans, and even the best plans sometimes need revisions. As General H. Norman Schwarzkopf said, "No battle plan has ever survived contact with the enemy." A job search needs both planning and luck.

v Comprehension check

o Answer the following questions using information from the article to support your ideas. Remember to use the article vocabulary to the maximum:

1. How can you create interesting opportunities?

2. Why is this an imperfect world?

o Explain what is meant by:

To create interesting opportunities

Logistics

To take advantage of an opportunity

Career strategy

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

Timing

To be born into a stable family

To feel powerless

To learn from the experience

To make the most of one's chance good fortune

Hindsight

To seize the day

To set goals

To master the skills

To question the status quo

To see things in new ways

To perceive patterns

To see the commonplace with fresh perceptions

To fund one's research

v Cultural note

Times Square – a wide intersection extending from 43^rd Street to 47^th street in central Manhattan, New York City, where Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersect; theater and entertainment area.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

Luck is the same as coincidence, timing, grace, serendipity and synchronicity. It's an unexpected reconfiguration of events, or when things happen in surprising ways.

There are four kinds of luck. You can't control any of them, but you can influence two of them. Luck by accident is unplanned. You have little or no control over it; it just happens to you. Natural disasters fit this category. It's also luck by accident if you're born physically attractive or into a stable, loving, supporting family.

Luck by accident makes people feel powerless. For instance, suppose the store where you work is purchased and you lose your job as a result, or your car is vandalized while parked on the street, or you find $400. You'd say you had nothing to do with these events.

You can't influence luck by accident; you can only respond to it. If your luck is bad, you can search for its "silver lining," learn from the experience and try to avoid its recurrence. If you have good luck, make the most of your chance good fortune.

Luck in retrospect is luck acknowledged in hindsight. Wasn't it lucky that you were late for English class and wound up meeting the person you intend to marry? When the event occurs, you don't know it's lucky, so you can't influence it. Only later do you realize how fortunate you were.

Luck by opportunity also requires recognition, but you must see the opportunity when it occurs and be ready to take advantage of it by responding quickly. Louis Pasteur said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." In other words, a myriad of opportunities won't help unless you're prepared to use them. Indeed, this kind of luck occurs only when preparation meets opportunity. Each day prepares you to recognize tomorrow's opportunities, so seize the day.

You have more influence over luck by design. For instance, to gather job leads, you may be reading newspapers and professional publications, researching companies and telling everyone you know about your goals. You know what you want, but you aren't sure how you'll get it, so you work to be lucky. That's planned luck.

These four types of luck aren't always separate and distinct. They frequently overlap, so that one or more types are present during each lucky event.