When Luck Was Against Me, Hard Work Stood By Me

I was twenty-six when I realized luck wasn't coming to save me.

Standing in my childhood bedroom—the one I'd moved back into after losing my job, my apartment, and what felt like my entire future—I stared at my empty bank account and laughed. Not the joyful kind. The desperate, slightly unhinged kind that happens when you've run out of tears.

Three job interviews that week. Three rejections. My degree felt worthless. My résumé looked like everyone else's. And while my former classmates were posting about promotions and vacations, I was wondering how to explain to my parents that I needed to borrow money for gas.

Everyone talks about lucky breaks. Being in the right place at the right time. Knowing the right people. But nobody tells you what to do when luck forgets your address.

That night, I made a decision that changed everything: if luck wasn't going to find me, I'd build something so undeniable that luck would become irrelevant.

When the World Says "Not You"

The path I'd followed was supposed to work. Good grades, decent college, a degree everyone said was "practical." I'd done everything right according to the rulebook they gave us.

Except the rulebook was outdated, and nobody had bothered to mention it.

I applied to 147 jobs in three months. Got twelve interviews. Received zero offers. Each rejection email felt like confirmation that maybe I wasn't good enough. Smart enough. Connected enough.

My friends meant well with their advice: "Just keep trying!" "Something will come through!" "It's all about timing!"

But timing is just another word for luck. And luck, I was learning, is a luxury not everyone gets.

What I did have was time. Anger. And a stubborn refusal to let my circumstances write my story.

The Unglamorous Path Nobody Talks About

I stopped waiting for permission and started creating my own opportunities.

I taught myself skills YouTube and free online courses could provide. Graphic design, digital marketing, basic coding. Not because I was passionate about all of it, but because I was desperate to become valuable.

Every evening after my part-time retail job—the one I took just to stop feeling completely useless—I'd come home and study. While my body ached from standing all day, I'd spend three more hours learning, building, practicing.

I created a portfolio of work nobody had hired me to do. Designed logos for imaginary companies. Built websites for fictional businesses. Wrote marketing campaigns for products that didn't exist.

People thought I was wasting my time. "Why are you working for free?" "You should focus on getting a real job."

But I understood something they didn't: hard work doesn't need an audience. It just needs consistency.

The Breakthrough Nobody Saw Coming

Six months into my self-education, I reached out to a small startup. Not with a résumé—they'd already seen hundreds of those. With a complete marketing strategy I'd created specifically for their company.

I spent twenty hours researching their business, understanding their challenges, and developing solutions they hadn't asked for. Then I sent it with a simple message: "I did this to show you what I can do. If you like it, let's talk. If not, no hard feelings."

The founder called me within two hours.

"Nobody's ever done this before," he said, impressed and slightly confused. "Everyone just sends the same generic cover letter."

I got the job. Not because I was lucky. Not because I knew someone. But because I'd worked harder than anyone else applying.

What Hard Work Really Teaches You

That job led to another. Then another. Each opportunity built on the foundation I'd laid during those months when luck was nowhere to be found.

But here's what matters more than the success: I learned that hard work isn't just about achieving goals. It's about building character, resilience, and self-respect that no circumstance can take away.

When you're lucky, you question if you deserve success. When you've worked for it, you know you've earned it.

I watched peers get opportunities through connections I didn't have. Saw people land dream jobs through family referrals. Witnessed luck distribute itself unfairly, randomly, maddeningly.

And I stopped caring.

Because while luck is fickle, hard work is faithful. Luck can disappear overnight. The skills you build, the discipline you develop, the person you become through perseverance—those are yours forever.

The Truth About Making Your Own Luck

Today, I run my own marketing agency. I've hired fifteen people, many of them like my younger self—talented but unlucky, qualified but overlooked, capable but dismissed.

When people say I'm lucky, I smile politely. But inside, I remember those 147 rejections. The nights I cried from exhaustion and doubt. The moments I wanted to quit but chose to work instead.

I think about the version of me in that childhood bedroom, feeling like the world had forgotten her. And I wish I could tell her: you're not unlucky. You're just early. The hard work you're about to do will matter more than any lucky break ever could.

Your Turn

If you're reading this from a place where luck seems to favor everyone but you, I need you to hear this: you're not broken. The system might be. The timing might be off. But you are capable of more than you know.

Stop waiting for luck to choose you. Choose yourself instead. Put in the work nobody sees. Build skills people will need. Create value before anyone asks for it.

Hard work doesn't guarantee immediate success. But it guarantees growth. And growth, compounded over time, becomes unstoppable.

Luck is wonderful when it shows up. But hard work? Hard work shows up every single time you decide it matters more than your excuses.

The world doesn't owe you opportunity. But you owe yourself the chance to become someone opportunity can't ignore.

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Thank you for reading...

Regards: Fazal Hadi