Been reading a fascinating book called “The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria on the change in worldview of America and its impact on the future. One of the things we tend to overlook is how global the world has become in the past 20 years. As an example, the major financial markets of the world are no longer in the USA but in London. The rise of economies in Brazil, Kenya, Venezuela, China and India have transformed the view of how the world trades. Companies which have future plans for growth are looking outside the USA for new markets and its impact on future economic development in this country is unclear. Politically, the USA has become isolated and many leaders are creating alliances which do not include us. Read the rest of this entry »

Some people have lucky charms or lucky numbers that they play in the lottery. Others feel “lucky” so they head off to the casino or other “game.”

Seth Godin has written an article called “The Difficult Choice” considering the relative potential of luck and intentional actions. Godin was responding to a very negative comment to his book titled The Dip. (The book deals with the question of “when to quit and when to stick.”)

In a review of The Dip, a listener writes, “I would argue that luck and randomness play at least as big a role as all of this dip stuff. “

Godin responded,

Either you believe that luck is dominant, in which case, why bother with effort?
or
You believe that luck is random, in which case it can be eliminated from your thinking and you can focus on all the stuff you can control.

That is a good assessment of the options that most people see. Personally, I do not believe in luck at all.

I do believe in providence. The Encarta Dictionary of North America offers the following definitions:

• Luck is defined as (1) success that seems to happen by chance (2) the arbitrary distribution of events or outcomes
• Providence is defined as (1) The wisdom, care, and guidance believed to be provided by a loving and caring God (2) good judgment and foresight in the management of affairs or resources Read the rest of this entry »