Was Bill Gates well-prepared or just lucky? (Yes.)
When it comes to money, did you ever notice how some people seem to be in the right place at the right time? Is it random chance, or is there a secret to their success?
If you asked a few of these individuals about their good fortune, some might say they’re just lucky. Others (particularly those with healthy egos) might say their success is the end result of their careful planning and hard work. And depending on their individual circumstances, each response might seem plausible. But attributing material success to luck or great planning is selecting two ideas at opposite ends of the spectrum; they both can’t be right, can they?
Perhaps both of these views are too extreme to be entirely accurate. Instead, it might be more appropriate to conclude that people who seemed to be in the right place at the right time were those positioned to take advantage of “happy accidents” that fell their way. In other words, material and financial success is usually a combination of preparation and luck. Take the example of Bill Gates.
From a very early age, Gates, the founder of Microsoft and today one of the world’s richest individuals, showed an aptitude and passion for computers. It was no surprise that he would make a fortune from his personal computer programs, and no one would say success “just fell into his lap”—he earned it. But several commentators have noted that Gates was born both in the right time (the mid-1950s), and grew up in the right place (Seattle, Washington) to capitalize on his interest in computers. As researcher and author Jean Folger puts it:
How successful would Bill Gates have been if he had been born ten years earlier or ten years later? There’s no way to tell, but we do know that Gates was able to perfectly take advantage of the newly developing world of computer technology because he was born at the right time and he happened to be at the right place—one of only two schools that had mainframe computers.
Even for a techno-geek like Bill Gates, it was impossible for him to foresee all of the scenarios that might come his way. But because of his cumulative preparation (starting with his first computer in eighth grade), Gates was well-equipped to capitalize on new, previously-unimagined opportunities when they appeared.
Effective financial plans follow this same arc: it is impossible to guarantee a specific financial outcome, even with the most detailed planning and hard work, because there will always be unknowable future events that will radically impact even the best strategies. However, it is possible to develop a financial preparedness model so that, if and when opportunities appear, you can take advantage of them. In other words, you can work at getting lucky. (To be continued…)
Elozor Preil is Managing Director at Wealth Advisory Group and Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). He can be reached at [email protected]. See www.wagroupllc.com/epreil for full disclosures and disclaimers. Guardian, its subsidiaries, agents or employees do not give tax or legal advice. You should consult your tax or legal advisor regarding your individual situation.
By Elozor Preil
