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“Who Dares, Wins”
Modern Musings
April 27, 2025
Smart. But not successful.
Talented. But not recognized.
Hard working. But struggling to get by.
Which of these describes you? Perhaps all three?
I’m still young, but I’m old enough to know that this story is far too common. There are too many of us that feel like we have all that we’ve been told we need but still aren’t where we think we should be. Why? Why do most of us feel like we’re still getting the short end of the stick?
In an uncharacteristic display of unoriginality, The Alchemist is my favorite book. Cliché though it may be, the short novel has been a constant companion of mine over the years. Throughout the story, Paulo Coelho talks of the language of the universe:
“The boy remembered the crystal merchant who had always wanted to go to Mecca, and the Englishman in search of the alchemist. He thought of the woman who trusted in the desert. And he looked out over the desert that had brought him to the woman he loved. They were all a part of the universal language.”
It’s a spiritual language, made up of coincidence and signs and dreams, that guides a very specific type of person through life. It nudges them in the direction of what Coelho calls their Personal Legend.
I hope Paulo can forgive me, but I’ve conceptualized the language of the universe in my own way. After a few reads of the novel, and after a few of my own encounters with the ancient language, I’ve called it by another name: luck.
And just like the language of the universe, luck only favors a very specific type of person. And it’s the ones that luck does not favor that will find themselves wanting for a life they believe they deserve.
Lady luck only smiles at one type of person. And that is the person who is courageous.
Many of us take comfort in the idea that we are the captains of our own fate; that we have control over the outcomes of our lives. Relying on luck for good fortunes frustrates this. It’s not only anxiety inducing, as we’re left vulnerable to the whims of chance, but it also strikes us as un-meritocractic, if not downright un-American! We want to live in a world, in a country, where success is paid for in hard work and grit. Where we can confidently say that those at the top deserve to be there because they put in the time and effort.
Today’s not the day to explain why there are few true meritocracies, and of the ones that remain, America definitely doesn’t make the cut. But just because meritocracy is a myth, it doesn’t mean we’re left without order. Success is earned. But the currency isn’t hard work. Or it isn’t just hard work. The currency of success, of life even, is courage.
Once you are courageous, life opens up for you. It almost makes a way for you, responding to your boldness.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
And the best way to show that you really want something is to be courageous for it; to be willing to risk failure and embarrassment for it.
If anything else, it’s purely a numbers game:
Post enough videos and one is bound to gain traction
Sing enough songs and eventually, you’ll write one that others want to sing with you
Shoot enough shots and eventually, one will go in
Chase enough dreams and one day, you’ll catch one
You just have to keep putting yourself out there and give it time.
And then, after you keep putting yourself out there and you keep stepping in boldness, something else happens. As you commit to courage, your reward model changes. You begin to value courage as the reward in and of itself. You’ll measure how successful you were by how courageous you were. And how courageous you are is absolutely something that you can control.
Listen, the luck propaganda is tough. At best it leaves too much of life up to chance, and at worst it diminishes the importance of hard work, which is still a prerequisite for success.
But I’ve seen too many hard workers miss out on the best that life has to offer because they were not courageous. And I’ve seen many, respectfully, ordinary people live extraordinary lives because they dared to dare.
If luck plays even a small role in success, I say we make it as easy as possible for luck to find us. It won’t find us if we never step out and take risks. And if it still doesn’t work out the way we hoped, even with luck giving us a little bump along the way, at least we tried. At least we can proudly say that we dared.
Yes, those who win are those who are courageous.
But those who are courageous, in the face of all the reasons we have to be fearful, have already won.
“Who dares, wins”
The most fulfilling moments for me as a writer have come when others reach out and say “me too.” It’s extremely comforting to know that you’re not alone and that others have felt the same feelings and thought the same thoughts as you.
My hope is that you can share in that connection too, whether by sending this to a friend you think could relate or perhaps using a few words that have stuck with you to start a conversation. Who knows what might unfold from a brief moment of vulnerability.
Either way, thanks for reading, and until our next musing.
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