With every season comes change and variety.

But some people won’t change.

They’re stuck on the same old ways. And I am particularly referring to entrepreneurs who believe in luck.

Sure, there’s an element of luck in entrepreneurship, but it becomes a problem when you rely on luck to do the work for you. I call such people “lucky” entrepreneurs. I don’t mean they’re successful, I just mean they’re waiting for luck to turn their business around.

Are you a “lucky” entrepreneur?

How much of your thoughts about your business are anchored in chance?

1. Effort v. Luck

I recently had an encounter with a long-time entrepreneur who had a little bit of success but also quite a bit of failure. We got into a conversation about his latest business quests and I couldn’t help but take notice of his superstition.

During our conversation, he said the following:

• “Good things happen to good people”
• “This business is destined to succeed”
• “I have failed too many times, so this time I am bound to succeed (without too much effort)”

In all of these statements, there is no rational calculation. It pained me not hear him make mention of a business action plan, market study, target audience, pricing, competition, network, or resources.

That person was operating purely on the basis of the belief that good things should happen to him and his business. But the fact of the matter is that good things don’t happen to people who sit at home and imagine good things happening to them. Businesses rise or fall causally – market variables and personality variables dictate the direction of the business – and not a supernatural force.

Moreover, the likelihood of failure will remain constant if you don’t create a plan of action. Your business won’t succeed if you’re not prepared to measure and control variables to the greatest extent possible.

Consider the following:

You decide to open a clothing store.

You start buying inventory based on what you think might be the “hot” new thing. You arrange your products in a certain way. You open the store.

How will you do?

Note here that you haven’t controlled any variable (yet). You’re simply operating out of your presumptions about the market. In fact, you don’t know if the arrangement of products is ideal. You don’t know if the people you hired are right for your business. And you don’t know if the new inventory will catch the attention of buyers. You’re basically starting out with little to no knowledge about the best way to convert visitors into buyers.

Now, let’s imagine that your clothing business hasn’t been successful. What are you going to do? If you believe in luck, you will draw conclusions about your business and say things like;

• “the product isn’t good enough”
• “the recession has killed the market”
• “people aren’t willing to pay for my prices,” and so on and so forth.

But if you approach it as a business developer, you will look at the variables in front of you: the placement of your products, the selling techniques you use, and the prices you’ve set for your products (by the way some people are more willing to buy a product if it costs more), and you will change them in accordance with the feedback you’ve collected.

That’s a sound approach to business. Luck won’t tell you anything.

2. Working the “Pipeline”

If you believe in luck, you’re also going to believe that customers are going to fall in your lap from the sky… that some force in the universe will detect your vibrational frequency and will send buyers your way, or something else along these lines.

You might also believe, whether you want to admit this yourself or not, that you should be rewarded for your intentions first and for your product second. A lot of rookie and not so rookie entrepreneurs make this mistake.

Creating a pipeline of customers and converting them into buyers is, to be honest, hard work. You must invest in your sales process as much as you did in creating the product and launching the business. In fact, top businesses hire experts to manage their relationships with the customers. They want to make sure that the sales process from the initial contact or the “pre-sale” phase to the sale itself and the follow up afterwards is controlled as much as possible.

I understand that not entrepreneur can afford to do that, but every entrepreneur can always become better at customer service and marketing.  

Are people talking about your business? Word of mouth is a great strategy to get people doing marketing for you.

3. Seek Rejection

A lot of entrepreneurs want to believe in luck because they don’t want to deal with rejection. But if that’s how you feel, then you’re in the wrong field. Business is all about rejection. That’s why I seek it.  

Learn to be okay with rejection. Don’t see rejection as a rejection of your own person. Don’t personalize it. Some people are just not interested in your product or service…and that’s fine.

Don’t overthink why people said “no” to you. Just keep going until you get a yes or find a better selling technique to get “yes.” If that doesn’t work, then the problem may be with the product.

Again, you won’t become profitable just because you launched a “business.” Think before you act, and when the thought is right, act.