The Art of Preparation Or The Turn of a Friendly Card

Why preparation is important? There are times in life you want to do more! You usually expect the “right” conditions to help you succeed. A favor of luck perhaps, a change at the original conditions, something to give you a break. Rarely does happen, and you should always be ready to exploit any opportunity may arise from the situation you are dealing with!

There is a long-standing contradiction about luck and preparation. One side says you do not need any luck if you have prepared enough and effectively (for instance if you have to schedule every possible action, variation, contingency, this same activity may distract you from your objectives). The other side claims, that luck is the single most dominant influencing factor in the progress of every situation.

[Tweet “In business, preparation can make all the difference!”]

Both sides have right. And both sides have wrong. The one cannot exist without the other. You need both a good planning and the favor o luck in order to succeed in any situation.

First of all, you need hard work to meet your designed goals. Part of this work is the planning and preparation. Have you seen anyone to know how to swim or play the guitar without learning or practice? It is the same thing, in life and in business.

For every little bit of magic or results you can, apparently effortlessly, to produce, exist a lot of hours of preparation and practice. Nothing happens in the void! In order to master something you practice, you start with small, baby, steps towards your desired destination, until there is no more room for practice but just a pure feeling of effortless execution (or flow).

Usually what most people see as luck is the result of a meticulously planning and preparation and discipline towards the desired goal. Usually, luck is the tip of the iceberg (the 10%) with the hard work hidden underneath it!

The ideal conditions to face a situation, would be for you to be ready to manage it (i.e. to have work, to prepare, to design all there is for you to control the things you can control in relation to that situation) and having a bit of luck in favor of you (i.e. to have some uncontrollable conditions, operate towards your benefit).

But that is not always easy or expectant. Usually, in order to handle a situation, you need just to prepare yourself for dealing on every controllable, by you, element of the given situation, to work hard on the elements you can control, and leave the luck factors to follow your hard work.

Or as Benjamin Disraeli has declared in the past:

“I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.” (BrainyQuotes)

Question: What you would say? How meticulous have you been preparing for difficult situations? Why preparation is so important to you? Please tell me what you think!