Do you really need to be that ?ballsy? to achieve something big?
Kyoto, first day of 2019. People were praying for ?Good Luck? for this year.
Lately I?ve been into Latin proverbs. Often written in short, fancy words, they have deep meanings that may lead to many interpretations depends on how we perceive it. My favorites amongst many are Per Aspera ad Astra (Through hardships to the stars) and Illegitimi non carborundum (Don?t let the bastards grind you down.)
But recently, there is this one quote that can?t just seem get out of my head. It?s an exceptional quote with deeper meaning ready to unfold. It?s Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat, which means ?Fortunes Favors the Bold.? Let?s talk a bit about the quote itself.
Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat; Fortunes Favors the Bold.
One of the most known of its earlier use is when Terence, a Roman playwright used it in his comedy play called Phormio. Later on, the quote itself made famous by the United States as the motto of notable US Navy ships and Trumbull College of Yale U.
The way I see it, this proverb means that fortune or luck will come to those who are willing to be bold. Meanwhile being bold may be defined as taking action without hesitation (well, at least on a minimum.) I see this quote as a motivation to be brave and daring on making decisions as we go, because if we stay put and don?t do anything there will be no luck for us.
In fact, luck itself is a probability. We say ?good luck? as we perceive it as a positive note to what would happen next, and vice versa. There is no real certainty on whether we will have a good or bad luck.
Your action and luck is something different yet inseparable. There are things to do that may improve your probability on getting the result you wanted, but others may decrease it. For example, the probability of a basketball shooter taking shot under the ring with closer and clearer look will have better probability for the ball to go in to the basket than if he has to shoot from the three-point line. But yet again, you will have zero luck if you don?t shoot at all.
Even if you take your shot under the best of circumstances, it will still have the probability of not going in by a fraction. In the end, fortune is something that even the best of skills cannot interfere but there will be no fortune if there is no action towards it.
So? No, Fortune does not favors the bold. It does ? on a certain point ? favors those who calculated their chances but nevertheless one definite thing about fortune that it is indefinite. Yeah, you may have done a thorough analysis on how you will act on something and boldly believes that you will attain good luck upon it. Or you just simply trust your gut. And the result turns out to be something you did not expect to be, at all.
Alas, you should not stop on shooting your shot.
But maybe?
Just not at this moment. Give yourself a break, and try to recuperate.
Better luck next time.
