Turn Bad Luck into Good with Self-Belief and Tenacity

To young leaders.

Good luck? Bad luck? Who’s to know?

On a flight to Manila on Saturday, I watched the documentary – Shane – a bio pic of the legendary Shane Warne.

Two stories really stood out:

1. At about six years of age, Shane suffered a freak playground accident that broke both his legs. With his ankles in a cast for over six months, Shane’s father made him a trolley so he could drag himself around the house using his hands. Terrible luck, right? Wrong. It was this period that Shane later credits for the extraordinary wrist strength that made him a freak leg spinner. So, a freak accident in effect created a freak leg spinner. Bad luck turned into good luck.

2. Shane’s first passion was not cricket, It was Aussie Rules, and Shane set his sights on playing AFL for St Kilda. He was completely focused on achieving that goal, nothing else mattered. But then he failed to make the cut and was utterly devastated. Bad luck? Nope. The pain that Shane felt when he got the St Kilda rejection letter, was just the tonic he needed to take his “desire to win” to a whole new level.

So never despair. All paths lead to your destiny if you approach them with the right attitude.

And what’s the right attitude?

Self-belief and tenacity.

Make that your mantra and nothing can put you down.