A series of fortuitous accidents

I recently watched Music by John Williams, a documentary about the film composer who - as well as being supremely talented - is also (and isn't it great when this happens) a lovely human being.

He puts his success down to 'a series of fortuitous accidents'.

I love that, because it's true and also engineered.

Meeting Steven Spielberg was the accident that changed his life. Spielberg approached him in 1974 to score The Sugarland Express, but look at what Williams brought to the meeting. He had studied hard, played jazz piano in New York clubs and recorded with Henry Mancini. By 1971 he had an Oscar for Fiddler on the Roof. Luck opened the door, however, it was nearly twenty years of hard work, preparation and commitment to his craft that meant he could walk through it.

We like to think successful people have talent we lack. Perhaps they do. Yet they also have habits and behaviours that are available to all of us, such as drive, creativity, discipline and resilience, and they use them on days when nobody is giving out Oscars.

So whilst most of us need a little luck to truly succeed, we can all adopt habits and behaviours that make us easy for luck to find. Fortuitous accidents are rarely as accidental as they look.