Today is Friday the 13th and I’ve received more than one text from friends noting it. I think that is interesting. It is making me think about luck.

Most of my life I’ve been called lucky by peers and friends. For a while there was even a name for a mysterious force that caused everything to work out for myself and my brother Andy–we called it Swan Factor. That was also the name of our first corporation, that did very well

I do not, however, believe luck exists.  I believe in  chance, probability and randomness, but the concept of luck goes beyond that to say that randomness somehow favors (or disfavors the case of bad luck) you. Chance doesn’t care.

While most of the things that “happen to us” in life are a result of our actions, many are not at all.

The one constant in life is that we have a choice of how to plan for and react to life and its many twists and turns. The key is doing so with a positive attitude and a smart game-plan.

I’ve always been a pretty optimistic person. And while I’ve had some curve-balls thrown at me–hell I’ve been hit by a few pitches–I always do my best to find the silver lining, accept the bad and pursue the good.

Chance favors no one, so luck does not exist. But if you are optimistic, happy, and try, others will see you as ‘lucky’.