(May 23, 2013 at 11:15 am)Texas Sailor Wrote: WRONG! Lol...Indeed! But only if you consider the oxford english dictionary also wrong.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/luck
Quote:Not laughing at you and you're not totally wrong. I just changed my image to the Genie from Aladdin, and recall Robin Williams voice yelling that at something Aladdin said that was incorrect, but, I digress. Luck can be defined quite simply as the point where two lines intersect.Reference material?
Quote:The line of preparation, and the line of opportunity. If you are prepared for something at the time and a seemingly unlikely opportunity presents itself, the results of your accomplishment could be construed as luck. It just depends on the level of your preparation. If i've never play the lottery, I'm never prepared to win it, and with no ticket, the opportunity doesn't exist. In the event that I purchase a ticket, and the numbers I chose are drawn, I was prepared with the ticket complete with numbers, and the opportunity presented itself for my numbers to be worth money. Its no more than that. There are tons of other variables in this analogy alone that can be chalked up to a series of the two things: Preparation and Opportunity. There is no example of something deemed as luck or a blessing that can't be broke down to the same basic outline.Intresting, but it's all baseless conjecture without supporting documentation.
When will you get it? I seldom if ever speak out of turn. When I make a statement here I may use my own words/spelling and bad grammar, but it is almost always certainly backed with actual reference material (Not commentary, but actuall reference material) The only time it isn't is when i start a sentence with: This is what I think, or I simply believe that...
Quote:Sure they can! If you follow the outline.Not to day not in this ecconomy. Not with employees/5 digit weekly payrole, rent, fuel prices, insureance costs, rising supply equipment costs, and a declining market. where people want to pay less and get more across the board.
I'm not doing lawn maintence or mobile car washing. i own a brick and mortar business that does not suffer fools or those who depend on luck for their day to day expenses. If you still think it is possiable to luck your way into a business then put up everything you own and go for it. see what happens. Put your money where your mouth is.
Quote:Try to apply it, and come up with your own way to understand it using the two line principle. It's certainly possible.

Quote:Wrong! Your contradicting yourself a bit here and not being fair with the determining factors of things that are lucky. If you are prepared, and the opportunity presents itself to maximize business, you can hardly say that the successful outcome you are able to derrive from it "came out of the blue"! If I read that right. You seem to be confusing luck with a miracle! If I'm reading your refutation of luck correctly, and I believe I am. You are actually arguing against miracles, which I agree, are absurd.It's not luck that keeps us in business. I don't like to use the word mirical because it has no meaning. That is why i directly attribute what has kept us going and growing for 10 years as the direct result of the full filled promises of God.
I a/s/k for 'X' God gave me 'X'. I was faithful to what God gave me, then He gave me Y. I was faithful to X and Y and He gave me Z, and on and on and on.
Quote: Me waking up to be an owner of a successful business that I know nothing about, and being able to single handedly make it flourish, would be a miracle, luck could not be applied to such a scenario. I would not be prepared, and it wasn't an opportunity. It would just be a bizzare happenstance, positive in nature, and for which, no logical reason could ever be had as it does not correlate with reality. A miracle is merely another unfounded claim of an extraordinary event manifesting from transcendant intervention in human affairs.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition...?q=miracle
Whether you believe in them or not is a non-issue. as your described the defination of a miracle to a tee in the above paragraph.
Quote: These are things that have never been proved.Take time to READ the defination I provided. They don't have to be proven. a Miracle is an unexplainable event with a positive outcome that has been attributed to God..
Quote:Its jamming God into things you don't fully understand because you want it to be true. You sell yourself short here.You can not possiable know that unless you can honestly evaluate each and every event that has kept this business going. We've had checks from customers who owed us money Years and years prior show up when something major was due on the day it was due to the penny... Stuff like this happens a few times a week. Not for a few weeks, but for 10 years.
Right now we need like 3K for to complete a project. two weeks ago out of the blue we were given 3 vinage soda machines (coke pepsi and RC cola), a cigarette machine, a modern pepsi machine, and a few old coke and gas station signs, As was writting the pervious paragraph I just got a text that a retailer is on the way to make a deal for all of it..
Again, One instance is luck, Hell I'll give you the first 100 times it happens is luck, but after 10's of thousands of events like this happen, on an on going basis for 10 or more years... We past luck a decade ago.
Again this is only the business part. There is an impossiable marriage we worked through and an understanding of the Bible none of you have been able to shut down, without appealing to logical fallacy or personal attacks.
Again I do not tell you this to brag you into belief. I tell you this because God has offered all of this to you as well. I am not anything special.
Quote:It doesn't mean understanding cannot be achieved. Luck happens all the time! But, take credit where its due. You were prepared, you put in the work, and you took advantage of a good opportunity. You did this. It wasn't anything else!

I always got a big job just before something bad happened that would carry us through whatever trial was on about to end my world. One after another after another...
I was not prepaired at all matter of fact I think the reason God gave me this business was because i was not fit to work for anyone durning the time.. Not to mention I had a 250.00 aday Herion addict keeping my books (Because I am worse at that than i am spelling believe it or not.)
So tell me again how I am selling myself short.
There was always just enough money to keep us going. And it wasn't because I am just a really really good refrigeration mechanic. Or because I was business savy, or because of anyother reason than God gave me all that i have.
Quote:A loan you can apply to your business? If you did not have the business or at least the idea for one that seemed profitable, you would not be prepared for such a lucky opportunity! Keep this in mind. Lets see another one...I was working for another man who promised to make me a partner at the time when i was offered this money. I was content with working for Him. Heck I was completely content working for my orginal company, till they gave my job away. I was a worker bee and happy to beee one for a very long time.
I took the money because the two years came and went and I was still not a partner. I left because I did not want to work with someone who would not keep their word.
Quote:I'm having a hard time finding justification for this plug-in, considering the logical explanation provided above for luck being preparation and opportunity.I don't know what you mean plug in.
i said that to help establish that everything I have was a gift/responsiablity from God.
Quote:You and the other companies were both prepared.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We operate with very little saved. Everything is provided as we need it. When we do have money left over we give it back, effectivly keeping us completely dependant on God. Yet somehow we've kept a really good credit score as well. (We always pay our bills on time.) Which can be a little scarry from time to time, because our monthly expenses can total more than what i use to make in a whole year. Even so, God has always proven to be faithful, so long as we remain faithful.
Quote: The opportunity that your company was fortunate enough to come by, did not present itself in the same way to the others. The lines didn't intersect for them as you say they did for you. Perfectly understandable. No need to plug in Genies.Do you not see what you have to do to dismiss my life story? you have to disect it into all of it's indivisual parts and try and dismiss them one at a time. While any one event can be explained away a simple luck, the sum total of ten years and well over a 7 digits worth of revenue can not be explained away as luck.