 I heard this illustration somewhere, there were two boys, one got 10,000 Naira, giving to him for free, the other worked so hard to get 10,000 Naira, who is more likely to get another 10,000 Naira and more in the future? You can guess the answer. There is another cliched story of two men, one was told he would become very rich and the other was told he would be very poor all his life. The first man returned home and lagged for years, waiting to become rich. The other man, who was told he would be poor, returned home and worked really hard and came off rich eventually. The moral is this, no one gets lucky. Speaker and author of Leave Your Dream, Les Brown, didn't get lucky. He dreamed of becoming a radio DJ and owning his radio show. He spent too many nights practicing his voice and training to become a DJ in his lonesome house. Soon, he got a job in a radio station as a janitor. He kept on practicing after work until one day, the on-air DJ was not available to work. The director asked if Les could take his place for the evening. Les, who was too excited and well prepared for the opportunity, agreed. He got on the radio, spoke in the same voice he had been practicing in for years and wowed the listeners that night. Of course, he was hired as the radio DJ and he went on to build his radio show and own his businesses. Stephen King didn't get lucky. He wrote hundreds of stories, submitted hundreds of them and got over 1,500 rejection letters before he broke through to becoming a world-class fiction writer. He chewed the manuscript of his first novel away but it was found by his wife who insisted that he finished it. He finished the story and the same novel launched him into the best-selling Autosyn. You never get lucky. No one gets lucky. You never get lucky. Luck is only preparation meets opportunity. Luck is what you get when you have worked hard and prepared hard. It comes to you when you have answered to the preparation you have been making mostly for months or years of your life. The thoughts that flickers through your mind, telling you one day you will get lucky. You will get some inexhaustible wealth that will suddenly save you from an impoverished future. Or you will become a great dad better than your dad or a great mom better than your mom. That thought is always so deceptive it leaves you waiting until a perfect time and then leaves you in a lurch. No one becomes anything waiting for luck. No one achieves anything banking on luck. No business succeeds or has ever become successful based on luck. Every successful business prepared for their luck, businesses that succeeded based on luck soon became locked out because they need more than luck to sustain their success. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book, The Outlier, about how it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a professional at anything. It may seem outrageous but you have never seen any professional who does occasionally what he is good at. He has spent hours and hours on ending whaling his skill. No one becomes anything that waits on luck. Jesus completed his early ministry in 3 years but he had 30 years to prepare. Jesus sure didn't get lucky. No one gets lucky. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity. Luck is what happens when you have spent too many nights in the trench, honing your skills, whatever the skill it is, and someone shows up one day, gets attracted to your result and decides to sponsor you to any length to become the best in that area. Luck is what happens when we do our very best to develop our gifts, opportunities, talents and God's graces upon our lives. Luck is what happens when we take hold of opportunities and make the most of them. Luck is what shows up for you in one single moment after you have taken years to prepare. When opportunity does not meet preparation, we say we are unlucky. I believed wrongly. As a teenager, I believed the world was made of golden velvety things, that you could always get whatever you want every time you wanted because I grew up with parents who weren't so rich but knew how to give us everything we wanted. I didn't believe life was never fair to anyone. I almost always had what I wanted and so I believed strongly in getting lucky. I grew up believing life would and should always be fair to me but I was wrong. I remember writing exams in high school. I believed wrongly that I only had to study a little and would succeed. I wrongly accepted the belief that you talked to God about everything and He would make it happen. Like Santa Claus handed out gifts on a golden platter, even Santa Claus rewards only good kids. I believed wrongly that God was a vending machine and a money doubler. Do little and He gives you much. Walk so little and He would give you so much money but I was terribly wrong. One time I walked into the examination hall having never studied. I confidently believed I would pass because I had prayed to God. I never cheated. I chose not to cheat even though I had not read because I was so sure God rewards such faithfulness. I didn't write much on my sheets. I walked out of the hall confident I would pass. I have never seen such a failure in my life. I failed woefully. It taught me you don't get lucky. You don't swiddle your fingers and life's goodies get handed to you just like that. Luck doesn't stand at your door waiting for you to beckon eat in. No, luck is what happens when you do your best and you leave the rest to God. In the movie Greater, young Brandon Bosswood, the main character, had just missed a football match and was ignoble sent out by a novice coach. Discouraged, Brandon left for his seat. Coach Thais had the coach at the high school, walked up to Brandon and told him, Do you want to play for me someday? Yes, sir, Brandon replied. The way I said, If you were ever going to play down, you will have to be the first one here and the last one to leave. And that's how you respond to today. Coach Thais said, You get that? You be the first to show up and the last to leave. Brandon Bosswood did what the coach said. He showed up early to practice. For many years, he showed up before anyone and was all practicing while most had gone to bed. He went on to lead his team to victory several times. Listen, luck doesn't jump on us. It won't jump on you. You make your own luck. You prepare and then luck finds you. Luck expects us to prepare. Preparation for everything is the part you play for God to help you. No matter the figure you multiply with a number zero, your answer will still always be zero. Luck, therefore, isn't anything short of you doing your best to prepare. Luck is taking the best you have done and adding to it the opportunity that suddenly shows up and so you get lucky. James, a brother of Jesus said, For as the body without a spirit is dead, so fate without works is dead also. If you do not work, you will not eat. If you do not work hard, never expect to get lucky. Banking and luck is the same as waiting for a car to drive itself to your desired destination while you are running late for a meeting. If you don't drive the vehicle, don't expect you'll be lucky enough to get to the meeting early. It ease your responsibility to do your best. Afterwards, it becomes God's responsibility to give you his best. You don't deserve God's best when you have not done your best. If this video inspired you, like the video and subscribe to our channel. We love you.