Luck

[Derrick Hughes]

Of course there is luck. Some are born lucky in that their parents steer them in the right direction. Some are lucky that they enjoy school work and through that get a good career. Some may be lucky they get a teacher who puts in the effort with pupils. Some win the lottery.
Some are in the right place at the right time. You can't plan that.

Some are born lucky and to lazy to take advantage of it .or is it bad luck to be born lazy

 

[DRC]

I’m not really sure about the point of the thread, I thought when I opened it that it would be about luck penny.
However Walter, apart from the bed your born in there’s not really any such thing as luck. You make your own in this life and in the tale you told that’s exactly what you did. You spied an opportunity and took it. The rest is history.

The person that walks into a news agent and buys the winning lottery ticket, is undoubtably lucky, as they did nothing to influence it.
Whereas someone like my bro in law, who died from a very rare form of cancer at 53, was terribly unlucky .
So there is luck .

 

[Red Fred]

Much of our bad luck simply comes from having so much that we don't like losing it.
As has been pointed out, we are incredibly lucky to be born here and now with the best social safety nets, medicine and so on that mankind has so far devised (although people in a hundred years time may consider us primitive.)
Back in March, it seemed that life was falling apart at the seams as several traumatic things happened over a couple of days, after years of pottering along happily without much to bother about.
Firstly mum was rushed into hospital and they concluded that there was not much left to do for her, and she would be allowed to slip away quietly.
On the same day, the estate sent a notice to quit (sent to all their FBT tenants as our terms come up),as they are putting their land into an enviro scheme. This meant losing 1/3 of the farm after 30 years.
Finally, I learned that an old and very close friend, who is the same age as me, had been for a check up and they had found cancer in her lung and brain.
Not surprisingly, I went into shock mode for a few days, but in fact the first two bits of bad luck are possibly debatable.
Mum is 89 years old and we have been looking after her for years, so in fact she has been lucky in that respect, and is in fact still with us and content.
Losing the land has incensed some tenants, but looking at it from a distance, the estate have been pretty generous letting us claim various schemes for years, and I have to admit I would do what they have done in their shoes. Nearing 60, do I really want to be chasing suckler calves and baling on my own for much longer? They may have done me a great service in fact by pushing me into action.
My friend with cancer, well that is very upsetting, but she is taking it well and is receiving the best treatment anyone has ever had access to.
I suppose it depends whether one sees the glass as half full or half empty.

 

[simmy_bull]

Their autoethnographical nature indicates that their main purpose is to be written, rather than read.

All are thought provoking, but I suspect often it is only his own thoughts he is provoking.

I mean no malice by that, it is purely my own interpretation of Walter's threads.

There’s another new word @Grassman ”auto ethnographical”

It’s a belter that one @Pieces_of_Eight ill have to go and look up its true definition.

 

[Pond digger]

Quite surprised you believe in luck Walter. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, given you’re also a religious man. Just proves you’re human after all.

 

[SilliamWhale]

And conversely, I always find them most interesting.
I just cannot visualise the mindset of those who deprecate his musings.

Generally they're pretty good. His weakness is he goes awol after starting a thread and to develop a thread of greater depth he should be arguing back his pov more after comments.

 

[topground]

Better to be born lucky than rich here.

 

[colhonk]

Except that you do and have just replied to it[/QUOTE
OOps, been sused out.

 

[icanshootwell]

So the op was earning a 6 figure sum for most of his working career, then he got into farming, no wonder he,s bitter and twisted and thinks us mere farmers are fools for working the hours we do for the little returns.

 

[Grassman]

There’s another new word @Grassman ”auto ethnographical”

It’s a belter that one @Pieces_of_Eight ill have to go and look up its true definition.

Google gets a workout again lol

 

[DrWazzock]

And interesting thread in more ways than one.

Does it become those of us who can earn vast sums elsewhere to compete with those who can't? Does it become us to " buy" our way into a livelihood that has taken others years of hard graft to attain?

I don't think it does really. I think farms, like respect are earned and built, not bought.

While I was working in a profession I once went to a farm sale and bought a tractor as at the time it was small change. (It isn't now). I just kept on bidding for it as I wanted it. I probably paid too much for it but I didn't care. But I felt a fraud and a cheat. The other folks their knew the value of the tractor and the value of the farm work needed to pay for it.

I felt like I'd machine gunned somebody who was holding a bow and arrow.

And it wasn't a good feeling at all.

It's a curious thing "working away" then buying a farm. I think I would have been a better man if I'd continued working away and made the most of that rather than buying my way into farming, though I had never left it entirely for my whole life.

Sometimes it feels like luck. Sometimes it doesn't.

 

[glasshouse]

The harder you work, the luckier you will be.

No, the ones with head down bum up dont see the opportunities fluttering past like butterfies.

 

[stewart]

If I see walters name on a thread....I do not bother looking at it.

You must have looked at this one to reply to it.

 

[stewart]

I really hope no one turns up with the quote " you make your own luck "

I was going to put that until I saw your post, I was also going to add the harder you work the luckier you get but someone beat me to that as well.

I believe both are true.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I was going to put that until I saw your post, I was also going to add the harder you work the luckier you get but someone beat me to that as well.

I believe both are true.

Luck also requires some form of risk, or be it farming , finance or women.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

No, the ones with head down bum up dont see the opportunities fluttering past like butterfies.

That's the bugger!

Unfortunately, for many farmers, this is oft the case.

I wonder sometimes if 'positioning' and 'luck' work together....?

In this scenario, due to being in the position of what may be called "being a busy fool" the position doesn't really allow much for the right type of luck?

I have been hugely lucky in life, in love, and it is something I will always be grateful for - so I endeavour to "pay it forward" at any opportunity, even if all I can give is advice.

Listening to advice has been the seed much of my luck has grown from, and a LOT of what have turned out to be good choices.

Bad luck, like death, is guaranteed.... all you can do is make your preparations and get your house in order.

 

[stewart]

Luck also requires some form of risk, or be it farming , finance or women.

I must be very lucky then, I have taken some risks,had a high level of finance and I tell the wife every day how fortunate she is to have me.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I must be very lucky then, I have taken some risks,had a high level of finance and I tell the wife every day how fortunate she is to have me.

........

 

[7610 super q]

I was going to put that until I saw your post, I was also going to add the harder you work the luckier you get but someone beat me to that as well.

I believe both are true.

Luck is just...um...errr......luck.
The bloke with the winning lottery ticket didn't get it by working hard pulling turnips everyday. He wasn't given it at birth. Perhaps he was in " the right place at the right time " ?
Hard work is no guaranty to wealth. If that were the case coal miners would be enjoying retirement in million pound mansions in Spain, whilst paper shufflers in London would be joining queues at food banks.........
Was the bloke buying land at £1500 acre in 1991 lucky ? Or was he just paying market value linked to it's earning potential ?
Is being in the " right place at the right time " due to luck ?
Or is it just being in the right place at the right time........

 

[stewart]

Luck is just...um...errr......luck.
The bloke with the winning lottery ticket didn't get it by working hard pulling turnips everyday. He wasn't given it at birth. Perhaps he was in " the right place at the right time " ?
Hard work is no guaranty to wealth. If that were the case coal miners would be enjoying retirement in million pound mansions in Spain, whilst paper shufflers in London would be joining queues at food banks.........
Was the bloke buying land at £1500 acre in 1991 lucky ? Or was he just paying market value linked to it's earning potential ?
Is being in the " right place at the right time " due to luck ?
Or is it just being in the right place at the right time........

All of the above has nothing to do with luck, it is called life.