Why Luck Plays a Big Role in Making You Rich

[barn32]

Interesting Bloomberg article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-01/why-luck-plays-a-big-role-in-making-you-rich) on luck. It's something most of us already know, but it's well put.

[chadk66]

one can create his own luck sometimes. In 2005 I moved to western ND from central ND. My wife had taken a new job there. I was running a construction job on the U.S. Air Force base and it was coming to an end and so was my job at the time. It was a perfect time to move. Just so happened they were starting to do some drilling for oil about that time. I decided to not take a job right away but use my time to build my own new home. So I bought ten acres and spent the next five months building the house. Had 147K into the land and completed house. Fast forward ten years-Due to the oil boom I sold the house for 600K. Two years after I built the first house I bought twenty acres before the price of land started to rise. So I took the cash and built another new home paid for. To me that is creating your own luck to a degree. Had I not built the house I couldn't have taken advantage of the opportunity.

[sammy the sage]

one can create his own luck sometimes. In 2005 I moved to western ND from central ND. My wife had taken a new job there. I was running a construction job on the U.S. Air Force base and it was coming to an end and so was my job at the time. It was a perfect time to move. Just so happened they were starting to do some drilling for oil about that time. I decided to not take a job right away but use my time to build my own new home. So I bought ten acres and spent the next five months building the house. Had 147K into the land and completed house. Fast forward ten years-Due to the oil boom I sold the house for 600K. Two years after I built the first house I bought twenty acres before the price of land started to rise. So I took the cash and built another new home paid for. To me that is creating your own luck to a degree. Had I not built the house I couldn't have taken advantage of the opportunity.

very nice... :ThmbUp:

[Saratoga_Mike]

one can create his own luck sometimes. In 2005 I moved to western ND from central ND. My wife had taken a new job there. I was running a construction job on the U.S. Air Force base and it was coming to an end and so was my job at the time. It was a perfect time to move. Just so happened they were starting to do some drilling for oil about that time. I decided to not take a job right away but use my time to build my own new home. So I bought ten acres and spent the next five months building the house. Had 147K into the land and completed house. Fast forward ten years-Due to the oil boom I sold the house for 600K. Two years after I built the first house I bought twenty acres before the price of land started to rise. So I took the cash and built another new home paid for. To me that is creating your own luck to a degree. Had I not built the house I couldn't have taken advantage of the opportunity.

I'd call that mostly luck (the house appreciation from $147k to $600k) unless you anticipated the Bakken oil boom. But the sale was a great decision!!!! Well done.

[chadk66]

I'd call that mostly luck (the house appreciation from $147k to $600k) unless you anticipated the Bakken oil boom. But the sale was a great decision!!!! Well done.we anticipated it to a degree but not nearly that much. figured 400K or so.

[Jess Hawsen Arown]

All true, but to quote the great Thomas Jefferson, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

[chadk66]

All true, but to quote the great Thomas Jefferson, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."seems to be the case quite often.

[Grits]

Luck is only a part of your story. It opened a door for you to invest or parlay, and you did so wisely, your profit. There's a saying, "it takes money to make money" and I'd rather have good money management skill and good work ethic than have luck. Luck often turns on us. ;)

Bringing me to another old and favorite Southern saying regarding luck:

"The sun don't shine on the same dog's @ss every afternoon". :lol:

I quietly tell myself this when I'm losing at the racetrack.

[Clocker]

Bringing me to another old and favorite Southern saying regarding luck:

"The sun don't shine on the same dog's @ss every afternoon". :lol:

I quietly tell myself this when I'm losing at the racetrack.

Which reminds me of an old and favorite saying of Alaskan dog sled mushers:

"If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes."

[Saratoga_Mike]

we anticipated it to a degree but not nearly that much. figured 400K or so.

In that case, very, very well done. BTW, how far are you from Williston?

[pandy]

we anticipated it to a degree but not nearly that much. figured 400K or so.

You put yourself in a position to get lucky.



Steve Markoff, an amateur harness driver, handicapper-bettor, is an accountant who studied accounting in college. We were talking about betting the superfecta years ago and he was telling me about many big hits he had. He said that he had been keying two horses in the first two slots then going all all, such as, 1-1-all-all.

I said, "But is that really handicapping, or luck?"

His answer was something that I found quite profound: "I'm putting myself in a position to get lucky."

[chadk66]

In that case, very, very well done. BTW, how far are you from Williston?ten miles

[chadk66]

it could actually get even more crazy. two years after building the first house I bought 18.5 acres that fronts on U.S. highway 2. Paid $36K for it. Which I knew was a steal but the locals had no idea what land was going to do here. I figured it would skyrocket due to living in other places in the country where things skyrocketed. The writing was on the wall. So I just sat on the land for nine years before building on it. I bought it privately from a couple. We sat down for coffee, I cut him a check and he handed me an abstract. Easy as that. But one strange thing, during this meeting he mentioned the land was zoned commercial. I said ok, but thought that doesn't mean a hill of beans to me. Well needless to say, commercial zoned property values went crazy. I decided to list it as commercial dirt. Had a signed purchase agreement for 400K. A company from Calgary wanted to put in a man camp. However, during their 30 day do diligence period the county passed a moratorium on any new man camps. They had a couple escape clauses in the PA so they got out of it. I didn't really care because I didn't care if I sold it. So I eventually sold my old house and built new out there. I was lucky because a year after building the county drafted a new ordinance preventing building homes on commercially zoned dirt. So now I sit on an awesome house paid for sitting on commercially zoned property fronting on a U.S. highway ten miles from the epicenter of the oil activity here. When things pick back up here (and they will eventually) I think it'll be worth in the 1.2 million range. My discussions with a couple realtors indicate they think it's worth more. So it's my retirement I guess.