Donald Trump and the Luck Factor

I know, I know – you’re getting tired of my harping on about Donald Trump. But this one’s different, I promise. Neutral, neither praising him nor damning him.

In writing about professional success, I spend part of a chapter in my book talking about luck. Yes, luck. Because luck sometimes becomes a significant factor in our success, or our lack of it. To be clear, “luck” is really just about where you happen to fall on the bell curve of life, and it’s really about math and statistics. But we call it “luck” as if there were some genie out there, and even the most unsuperstitious individuals generally try not to break mirrors or walk under ladders.

Now, President Trump is one of those guys who happened to be born into propitious circumstances. Take, for example, his family name. Nothing sounds more like a winner than “Trump” – the card designated to beat all others.

But it could have been different. Donald’s ancestors back in Germany were Drumpf, and somewhere just before or just after Friedrich emigrated to America to dodge the German draft, the name was changed. Now, suppose the change had not been made. Would Donald Drumpf have become 45-47? It would not have been as easy.

Donald also had the good fortune to be born into money. Lots of money. Money that enabled him to lead the life of a playboy and play at entrepreneurship, knowing that Daddy would always bail him out of his serial disasters. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have that kind of backstop in my career.

Donald’s luck further held out in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Had the bullet been just an inch closer, history might have been different.

It does seem indeed that Mr. T does have a strategically placed golden horseshoe. But the lesson is wider, and applicable to all of us.

Chance encounters and serendipitous opportunities happen to all of us. As professionals, from time to time a magical case or opportunity lands on our desk, a chance to shine as never before and to jump start a reputation in a desirable specialty.

We meet someone randomly at a convention and a lifetime of rich collaboration begins, a professional partnership, or an accountability buddy. In domestic affairs, chance encounters can lead to lifelong relationships: one of my cousins was born Christine Jones, and in the inevitable registration queue at university was alphabetically placed immediately behind Allan Jones. The rest, as they say, is history, two wonderful sons and many happy decades later.

“Luck” usually arrives unannounced and in disguise, so there’s nothing to be said for sitting back in the easy chair waiting for it. We have to get on with life. But “luck” plays out differently for those who are prepared and whose work ethic and smarts and courtesy and consideration for others turn those chance encounters or random engagements into life changing events.

Not all of us have a name which means the winning card, and not all of us have rich daddies, but all of us get opportunities which enable significant leverage. By being the kind of person that others trust and want to be with, and being the kind of professional who does everything thoroughly and “above and beyond”, we put ourselves in the position of “getting lucky”.