Introduction:

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson

At the time of this writing, a new craze is sweeping the country. ABC's game show, "So You Want to Be a Millionaire?" has millions of addicted fans, myself included, who tune in religiously to see if the next contestant can pull off the American Dream - becoming a millionaire, literally, overnight.

In case you haven't caught the show, the basic set up is as follows: A group of ten contestants compete to win the opportunity of playing the game, but the competition begins earlier than what the television audience views. Millions of millionaire-wannabes persist through hours of telephone busy signals to get through to the phone number that gives them the opportunity to qualify as a contestant. Then, if they are one of the "lucky" ones who makes it through this hurdle, he or she and a friend are flown to New York where they'll smile for the television and be given a chance to qualify for the big game.

At this point, less than a second separates the winners from the losers. One or two lucky contestants make it into the hot seat with the sauve and warmly inviting host, Regis Philbin, after answering a question correctly, in the shortest amount of time. The rest of the contestants will go home with nothing but their memories, disappointed that they came so far and got so close, but it wasn't meant to be.

The contestant who plays the game, answers fifteen questions, with each right answer awarding money that grows exponentially until reaching the final prize of one million dollars. A wrong answer can send the contestant crashing down to a measly $1000.00 - booby prize money, or if the contestant makes it above the $32,000 mark, he or she can kiss $968,000 good-bye with a wrong answer. It's a high stakes game, with appealing, heartfelt human drama. No wonder it has captured America's attention. And, it's all about creating luck.

"Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness."

If you've seen the game, you know the questions are always structured as follows. Play this game question and you'll see how it works:

Question: Which of the following is an example of pure luck?

• Being born into a wealthy family.
• Meeting the love of your life on the subway.
• Winning the 64 million dollar lottery. D) Your life-line* knew the answer to the previous obscure question about who sculpted the statue of a horse sitting outside of the Vatican.

Let's play the game. Part of the charm of watching this show is that the contestants often talk out loud as they arrive at the right answer. So, imagine that Heather, a beautiful woman in her forties who makes her living as a stock broker in New York, is poised to respond to this question. She might say:

"Well, let's see. I sure am lucky that Mom knows something about fine art, and that she was able to give me the correct answer that won me a half million dollars. I sure don't know anything about horses outside of the Vatican! But, that's not really pure luck. Because I had to decide who to call, and I chose the right person, based on what I know about Mom. I influenced that luck, so it wasn't pure. Scratch choice "D".

"Winning the $64 million dollar lottery would be cool. I wouldn't have to sweat it out before 25 million people, making a fool out of myself if I screw up and lose it all. The chances of winning the lottery are practically infinitesimal, worse odds than getting hit by lightening three times in one lifetime! Winning the lottery sure seems like pure luck. But, it isn't. You've got to buy the ticket! So, it's not "C".

"I met my husband in a bus. We were both headed to a client meeting in the same general area. I thought he was really handsome, and he dressed like success. It was instant chemistry between us, and he asked for my phone number before he got off at his stop. The rest, as they say, is history. We've been married for twelve years. We often say, "What would have happened to our lives, if we didn't happen to get on the bus, that day, at just that time? We were sure lucky. "But, it took courage for my husband to ask me for my phone number, and for me to agree to give it to him. What if he turned out to be a serial killer? Or, what if I had said "NO way!" to him? He would have felt like an idiot. But he took his chances and asked anyway. So, nope, us meeting on the bus wasn't pure luck either. It's not "B".

So, that leaves me with "A." Being born into a wealthy family is pure luck, because the baby did nothing to influence that birth - unless you believe in karma or something like that. What kind of family, geographic location, wealth, race, handicap, or whatever that we are born into has nothing to do with anything we did. It's just luck - pure and simple. So, that's my final answer, "A".

"We've got two lives: The one we're given and the one we make." Mary Chapin Carpenter

Regis Philbin would respond in his characteristic way: "Are you sure that's your final answer?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Final answer, "A."

"You are right!! You've won a million dollars!" The confetti is thrown, the audience cheers, and millions of onlookers watch the newly blessed Heather, dripping with envy and muttering to themselves, "Gosh, she's SO lucky. What I could do with a million dollars!"

The television program, "So, You want to Be a Millionaire?" is all about creating luck. Sure, it's pure chance if you happen to be a wine connoisseur and the half million dollar question is a trivia question about french wine, or if you've never been a sports fan, and the half million question asks you about an NBA player's record. But it also takes tremendous courage, skill, persistence and chutzpa to travel the journey from one's living room, to the hottest chair in America. Every contestant that lands on that show is a luck-maker. Even the ones who don't go home with the big prize money.

"Like an unexpected inheritance, good luck generally comes to us unexpectedly, "out of the blue." Sometimes, to be sure, we take preliminary and preparatory steps to put ourselves in luck's way. You cannot win the lottery without obtaining a ticket or make money on the ponies without placing a bet. Nicholas Rescher, author of "Luck"

Some people might question a book entitled, "Create your Own Luck." "What do you mean, 'create your own luck?' I thought luck was chance. Luck isn't something you can control. Luck is just something that happens to you, right? Right place, right time, the angels of good fortune sprinkle their fairy dust on you and voila - you are granted good fortune."

Wrong. To a greater degree than any of us are comfortable admitting, we don't have complete control over our lives, and we are at the mercy of good and bad luck - pure chance. Surely, it was not your fault if you happen to be travelling on a plane that crashes into the ocean, or if your home is targeted for a tornado's wrath. Sometimes, there was nothing you could do to avoid the tragedy that befalls you.

But what if your intuition told you not to board the plane, and you did it anyway? What if you were advised to build a tornado shelter in your home, but you spent the money instead on a new car? Sometimes, even disasters out of our control are influenced by our actions. And sometimes, not. Just wrong place, wrong time, unfortunate circumstances. Then, creating positive luck arises after bad luck has been an unwelcomed visitor - in how you respond to the adversity.

My husband and I planned an outdoor wedding, but on our wedding day, the temperature plummeted forty degrees overnight, and we had to move the entire ceremony indoors. I doubt we had much influence on how the weather would turn out on this important day, although we sure prayed for good weather. But we made the best of it, and 140 guests crowded into my inlaw's living room, making for a rather cozy atmosphere. Perhaps it even turned out for the best, even if my walk down the aisle was about three feet.

Recently, we took the children to Disney world. On one day, it unexpectedly poured buckets while we were trapsing around the park. Within a few minutes, we were all drenched, without umbrellas and protection. My little girl, Sarah, pleaded outloud with God to bring back the sunshine. Within a few moments, the rain stopped and the sun shone. She is convinced to this day that her prayers were heard by God and responded to. I didn't tell her otherwise.

Serendipity, chance, coincidence, good fortune, whatever you want to call it, is not always subject to our control. Thank god. Because life can turn out even better than you had planned. Just because you are in the right place, at the right time, something entirely unexpected and wonderful can happen for you, and you'll shake your head in wonder at the miracles of this universe.

We are at once, at the mercy of circumstances entirely out of our control, and also, capable of influencing our lives to a greater degree than most of us allow ourselves to believe. "Create Your Own Luck" will give you techniques for attracting more good fortune into your life, and for ridding yourself of the obstacles you place in your own path - "luck busters" we'll call them. I hope that when you are done with this book, you will still, like me, have great respect for the mysterious aspects of this world, for that which is of God and the universe, and not ever within our direct control. God forbid you should become arrogant enough to believe that you are the center of the universe, and like a marionette puppeteer, you control everything by pulling the right string.

Principles of creating luck are less about being in control, than about taking control over that which is yours. Creating luck is about partnership with whatever higher being or force you believe exists in the world. It's about believing that miracles and good fortune for you are possible and that you deserve it, asking for what you want and being willing to work hard to get it, listening to your intuition, responding to life's trials with resiliency, taking yourself off the hook when you aren't perfect, being extraordinarily patient, giving of yourself, and paying greater attention to your good luck, than your bad. Creating luck is a skill you can learn, and an attitude toward life you can master.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, It is a matter of choice."

Let's begin. Come create luck with me.