If you’ve recently been the victim of bad luck, don’t worry: your fortune could be soon about to change. Check out the stories of these 3 people, whose lives all took a turn for the better after what appeared to be a stroke of bad luck:
1) Steve Jobs
Most people would say that being fired by a CEO you had hired yourself was pretty unlucky. But for Steve Jobs, it turned out to be the moment of liberation he needed to go on and create some of the greatest technological devices of all time.
Jobs famously co-founded Apple at the age of 21 and revolutionised the personal computing industry. He became a hugely-wealthy celebrity whose wild success was renowned across the globe. But all this came crashing down when he was very publicly forced out of the company he had helped to build by John Sculley, the man he had appointed as Apple’s CEO.
The dismissal was devastating for Jobs, but it freed him to enter what he described as one of the ‘most creative periods’ of his life. He called an old colleague and started up a new computer firm called NeXT, as well as the award-winning computer animation company Pixar Studios.
Apple was soon struggling and, in an astonishing turn of events, decided to acquire NeXT. This meant Jobs was once again working for the company he had helped create. Better yet, just a year later, Jobs became Apple’s CEO. His new creative vision allowed him to lead the innovation of some of Apple’s most celebrated products, including the iPod, the iPad and the iPhone.
2) J.K. Rowling
Struggling writer J.K. Rowling was as poor as it was possible to be. She thought her luck couldn’t get any worse when her train from Manchester to London was delayed for 4 hours.
But those 4 hours turned out to be some of the most important (not to mention lucky) of her life. It was in that time that Rowling thought up the idea of a children’s book about a young boy named Harry Potter, who enters a magical world of witchcraft and wizardry.
By 1995, after spending hours clacking away on an old-fashioned manual typewriter, Rowling had a finished manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Though at first rejected by 12 publishing houses, the book was eventually accepted and Rowling’s fate as a celebrated literary phenomenon was sealed. She penned 7 books in the hugely-popular Harry Potter series, which went on to inspire a multimillion-pound film franchise, theatre productions and even theme park attractions.
J.K. Rowling is now the richest woman in the United Kingdom – and it’s all thanks to that seemingly unfortunate train delay.
3) Colonel Sanders
In 1930, Colonel Sanders thought he had realised his dream. He was the proud owner of a roadside diner in Corbin, Kentucky, where he was selling tasty Southern classics like country ham and fried chicken. But then his life took a turn for the worse.
The opening of a new road saw Sander’s profit plummet. All the traffic (i.e. all of Sander’s potential customers) started bypassing his restaurant and he was forced to shut up shop.
But the closure of his diner encouraged Sander’s to chase an even bigger dream. With his last $100, he went on to try and franchise his secret fried chicken recipe of 11 herbs and spices. Although it’s reported that he was rejected 1,009 times before finding a buyer, Sanders eventually sold a ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ franchise licence. It was the first step that led to KFC, the fast-food empire that turned the Colonel into a millionaire and celebrity.
Could your luck be about to change?
If the stories of Steve Jobs, J.K. Rowling and Colonel Sanders have taught us anything, it’s that’s we each have the power to transform our own fate. If you’ve had a recent stroke of ‘bad luck’, look for new opportunities to turn things around. Whether it’s perusing a long held-dream of starting a new business or writing a novel, or even having a go on a few online slot games (you can sign up and get free spins no deposit at the casino bgo.com), good luck could be just around the corner.