If you are not an American football fan, bear with me on this post.  It is still relevant to you.

The New England Patriots just won the Super Bowl, making an incredible comeback after being down by 25 points in the second half.  Tom Brady won his fifth Super Bowl.  He has appeared in the NFL championship game 7 times now, as the Patriots lost to the New York Giants in two previous appearances.

When the Giants won both Super Bowls against the Patriots, there was an amazing catch each time late in the game.  There were several key plays where it could have changed the outcome of the game on both occasions.

There was also a crazy catch in the Patriots’ victory over the Falcons.  But as Brady said after the game, there were probably 30 plays where if something different had happened, it likely would have impacted the result of the game.

There were a lot of factors leading to the great comeback by the Patriots.  Some of it was probably just bad coaching and play calling by the Atlanta coaching staff.  Some of it was obviously the incredible skill and determination of Brady and his teammates, along with his coaching staff.  Some of it was just plain luck.

And I want to focus on the luck part.  I once had someone say to me that the two victories by the Giants in the past over the Patriots in the Super Bowl were a fluke.  And to be sure, there was some luck involved.  But let’s face it; they were in the position to be lucky.

Brady and his team have had their share of luck too, especially in this latest Super Bowl win.  But on every occasion, they put themselves in a position to accept the luck.

Does it ever seem that some guys just get lucky more often than others?  If that is the case, it probably isn’t all due to luck.

You have to put yourself in a position where you can actually get lucky and benefit from it.  And when luck does come your way, you have to be able to seize the moment.

Here is an example of not seizing the moment.

This, of course, isn’t just about football.  This is life in general.  It is business opportunities.  It is financial wealth.  It is relationships with others.  It is life.

If you write a book, you probably won’t be a best-selling author.  If you do, some of it will probably be due to luck.  You may just happen to pick the right topic at the right time.  There is one thing for sure though.  If you never write a book, you definitely will not become a best-selling author.

There are musicians who have been extremely lucky in getting in front of someone and making it big.  There are probably other musicians in the world who are more talented.  But if you don’t put in the time to practice and then put your work out there, then you will definitely never be a star musician.

There are YouTube videos out there with 20 million views.  They happened to go viral.  Some of them are really well done.  Some are just stupid, but it all depends on your perspective.  Either way, for many people, they got lucky with their video going viral.  But again, if they had never uploaded the video to YouTube and told their friends about it, they never would have gotten “lucky”.

I know people like to criticize Donald Trump for his many failed business ventures.  But trying different ideas lets you know what works and what doesn’t.  Even if he just got lucky on the ones he tried, at least he tried.  And most of the people criticizing him have never tried any business venture, even on a small scale.

When opportunities present themselves in life, accept your luck.  But in order to get lucky in the first place, you have to put in the work, and you have to put yourself out there in a position to get lucky.