Pipe dream

I will never be this guy

I always talk about dreaming big. After all, I am the Dream Economist. For me, all you need is a pair of hope, a cup of will, an ounce of determination, and a tablespoon of looking at the brightside. And there you have it, the recipe for success. For reaching that big dream. It works. Look at the Forbes Magazine-worthy life-stories of tycoons and you'll hear them say the same thing. 

But what if those are not enough? Is there such a thing as hard luck? Unfortunately, there is.

Better be lucky than great. No matter how much effort or time you put into it, sometimes those are not good enough. Sometimes, luck is what separates billionaires from the poor, haves from the have-nots, and kingpins from the slaves. Luck is the kicker, the thing that not everyone has. Luck essentially catapults an individual from nothingness to awesomeness. 

I mean look at Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. I am sure there are other people who are capable of coming up with personal computers in the 70s, but these two pulled it off with a combination of right timing and opportunities presented. Maybe right timing is everything. Maybe. But what if that time doesn't come? Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs both had the right time on their teams. 

Look at Charice Pempengco. She didn't win a local contest in the Philippines but was lucky enough to be discovered by the likes of David Foster and Oprah Winfrey. I am sure, there are thousands of talents that are much better than her without a record label or any opportunity to showcase their talents. AT ALL. (not that I am not impressed with her, but I know there are a lot of people waiting to be given a chance)

Look at Manny Pacquaio. Look at the winners of reality TV shows who are now famous for who-knows-what. Look at lottery winners who became instant millionaires.

Reality is harsh. Because not every one has the same share of the pie. Big slices are allocated for a selected few--no matter how we feel we are more deserving than those few people. While economics deal with the allocation of scarce resources, sometimes economics is a b*tch because that allocation is skewed towards the lucky few. The spread of luck is uneven. (and now the more reason to hate life?)

I am not saying lucky people aren't deserving to have luck on their sides. I am not saying they didn't work hard to be in that position (I am sure they did). But luck is a breakthrough everyone should have and not just a select few. At least that's how I feel about it. 

Oh well that's life. And most people end up by saying "I make my own luck." That's true. Create opportunities. Work around the system. Hard luck doesn't have to stop us from accomplishing that dream. What's the cliche "try and try until you succeed" is for anyway? 

For me, yes. Pipe dreams do exist. I know for sure that I won't be a billionaire by the time I am 40 (which means I am still hoping to be a billionaire when I'm fifty haha). I know for sure that I won't grow any taller than I already am (which is just sad but I've accepted that God compensated my physical limitations with something else...). I know for sure that I won't be like John Mayer or Jason Mraz (although I somehow think my music is worth listening to). I needed luck to have all of those. But LUCK didn't go so well for me in those aspirations. 

But we all have to look past those luck issues and start making up for it in other ways. I always say it could have been worse. Yeah, it could have been worse. Look at this video. In the end we are all lucky to be here. To be where we are now, no matter how much we feel deprived of the things we want and the things we need.

Luck may be what separates us from our pipe dreams, wants, and what-have-yous. We can all have the recipes for success and it may not be enough still. We may consider luck as the secret ingredient. But it shouldn't stop us from living life to the fullest. Luck may be a shortcut and your ticket to whatever. But when the dust settles, the important thing to remember is to make the best use of what we have, and not what we can/should/could have. Life ain't measured by the end result--because we all have the same ending anyways--but by the means, effort and journeys we took. We can always take a jab at dreams and successes everyday. 

And luck is just there to make things a little more interesting.