It is easy to navigate through life thinking that you are the greatest gift to the world. To walk around with an ego larger than Warren Buffets bank balance. To move around with absolutely no thoughts on how luck played a significant role in your life.

Luck is something I've always been fascinated with; Lotto winners, business success stories, fatal accidents & tragic failures. Luck is still a misunderstood phenomena. It is defined as the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events or opportunities.

The irony of what at first seems to be bad luck can actually turn around to be the greatest blessing. Such as missing a flight then hearing that it crashed and none of the passengers survived.

How does one even start to rationalise such experiences. You don't, you accept the unacceptable, take a deep breath and say WOW!! What a weird and wonderful world we live in.

Luck places its hands on many things in our life; Family, friends and even our careers. It plays a significant role in nudging the odds towards our favour or despairingly against it.

Your greatest luck, believe it or not is where you were born and the period of time. It might be hard to believe but we are blessed to live in the greatest times of civilisation.

The number of wars are at their lowest than ever before. As much as poverty still exists in various parts of the world most people have basic access to food and water. Some of the most threatening diseases have been eradicated as humans are living longer than ever before.

The news might paint a grim picture about our current times. But the fact remains that we are living in the most peaceful and prosperous period in human history.

I think the older one gets you realise that there is a pool of human resources that one has to give back to. People confuse this with having a lot of money in order to give back to society. The philanthropy that really changes the world is when ordinary individuals give up their valuable time to do volunteer work.

I'm extremely grateful of the opportunities I've had in life; My education, my parents, where I grew up, my friends. These factors were all a roll of a dice, they have all in a mysterious way played an important role in who I have become.

As a black South African I am well aware of my privilege. Growing up in suburbia and being exposed to an environment of libraries, swimming pools, tennis courts and piano lessons.

As much as my efforts in making the right choices in life have played a part in the person that I have become. I simply have to watch the local news to see students protesting for the right to have basic education. One of the saddest things about privilege is its ability to ignore things which do not effect it directly.

The fact is however successful, talented or great you are somewhere along the road a great amount of luck helped you along the way. But luck is also something we use to make excuses for our laziness and bad attitude. Luck seems to be that word we throw at difficult problems that require us to stretch our minds and apply ourselves in finding solutions.

Gary Player famously said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” As much as favourable opportunities might fall your way, preparation is essential in taking advantage of lady lucks elusive hand.

Preparation is taking the difficult path in the midst of darkness, frustration and the piercing tongues of critics. It is choosing to believe in something you cannot see, but only dream about. The difficulty is the inner work required to sustain you through boredom and distractions.

Sometimes the obligations that family and friends place on you can be a heavy load. Opportunities have no schedule, when they arrive we need to recognise them, close our eyes and take a leap into the abyss of life.

I believe that luck is something you manifest from consistent effort. Someway, somehow the universe wants us to be winners. Nature wants us to thrive but our anxiousness and lack of patience drive away our lucky stars.

So, if you find yourself cynically looking at your life and pondering on why you can’t seem to catch a lucky break. Do not despair, carry on with your life and do what you have to do perfectly without any reservations.

Luck isn’t something we need to investigate deeply, it’s mired in too much mystery. All we can do is just acknowledge it and show gratitude towards its smiling face when it comes knocking. "No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."

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