Luck is a fickle concept. Some people feel lucky while others wonder if they have any luck at all except for the bad kind. I think everyone believes in it to some degree, whether or not they want to. It is the same spot in the dressing room before every match, the right underwear before a night out, or even calling in the big guns like the Child of Prague for an occasion.
In general, I have always been a very lucky person, my father swears by the notion that if I lost a fiver, I would find €50. Things usually just have a way of working out for me, I like to think that it is the universe looking after me to some degree.
The Law of Cause and Effect states that whatever you send into the universe comes back. Ralph Waldo Emerson called this: The Law of Laws. It´s powerful. You get back what you put out. It is like a boomerang. You throw it out and it comes back to you. If you put a negative out, you will get a negative back. So, when you put a positive out you will get a positive back, maybe not straight away, but it will come. It´s the Law and the Laws of the Universe are very seldom wrong. I am not usually one for this “energy” stuff, but I do believe this.
In other words, that is a roundabout way of describing Karma. Or luck if you really want to split hairs.
The strange thing about luck though… is you do not know if it is good or bad until you have some perspective. This June 15th marks 8 years of Avalanche and it has been quite a journey; this yearly milestone and in particular, the last few years allows me some perspective. It feels like a long time, but it has passed in the blink of an eye at the same time. In total 8 years is:
96 months
417 weeks
2944 days
70,000+ hours
4,204,800 seconds.
A long time when you break it down. In total of those 2944 days, I estimate I have taken less than 100 days off as I find it almost impossible to switch off. 5 days in total I have not turned on a computer/been off the grid in this timeframe.
This is less than 1% (0.169%) of the days of Avalanche I have been “off”, probably not that healthy to be honest but that is a problem for another day. As you can see, luck & hard work are very intricately linked. The Law of Laws. What you put in; you get out.
It has been almost the entirety of my adult life so far; it has come to define who I am as a person and my approach to life. It allows me to look back with some perspective to see how lucky I am.
Every drop of sweat, the stress, exhaustion, panic attacks and tears have all been worth it.
It has been the hardest thing I have ever done, it has taken me to the brink many times, I have made a million mistakes & I consider myself the luckiest man alive to have had the privilege.
Avalanche has allowed me to travel the world, it has given me my dream house, the ability to look after my family, to donate to charities/causes close to me and even give back to my communities in several ways.
The Law of Laws states that you get back what you put out. I know that I am incredibly lucky to do what I do every day and I hope that the years of hard work continue to pay off so we can keep helping businesses, charities & people all over the world.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed in some small way, to those who trust Avalanche in their business, to everyone who has worked with us, followed, shared, liked, or commented along the way. Every single one of you is appreciated and seen. My goal when I started all of this was to get out from student debt and secure a full time job as a developer so the idea that Avalanche is a full firm that helps people every day is still crazy to me.
It has surpassed my wildest dreams and I am thankful I can now help others as a result of this. I can ensure we put out a positive message in the hope it comes back to us in a positive manner. Through our work in design, technology and coding in general, our goal is to make the internet a better place and I am delighted to be 8 years into this endeavour.
Thank you for believing and thank you for your continued support in a skinny know-it-all kid from Benmore.
With a little bit of hard work, he turned out to be one of the lucky ones.
If I can leave you with one thing, I have learned in the past eight years: Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen.
You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. – Steve Jobs
Stay safe people, Aidan out.