In this year of abundance, I have changed the meaning normally associated with the phrase, “Just my luck!” In the United States, when someone says “just my luck” it connotes that bad or unpleasant things often happen to someone because he is unlucky. For example, a driver picks a toll booth lane and out of three lanes, his lane is the slowest. “Just my luck,” the driver would complain. Of course he got the slow lane; he’s often unlucky.
For me, now, “Just my luck” connotes that good and pleasant things often happen to me because I am lucky. For example, I got a convenient parking space, well, “Just my luck!” Of course I got a convenient parking space because I’m often lucky!
Last month my my father, son, and I took off to the deserts of Imperial Valley, California for a few days of exploring, four-wheeling, and camping. One area we decided to explore was Truckhaven. Truckhaven lies just west of a beautiful but toxic lake known as the Salton Sea and is a maze of miles of unregulated and unpatrolled 4×4 trails spread over hundreds of desolate acres of rugged desert terrain. Trails consist of deep sand washes, boulder covered single tracks, twisted crevices, steep inclines and declines, plateaus, and narrow ridgelines where you hope the dirt underneath you doesn’t give way. Truckhaven is a great place to have fun, but it also can be a dangerous place, even if you are careful.
Because of our newness to the area and inherent dangers, we planned to go in for about an hour and then turn around. In this manner, we figured we could get a sense of the place, but we probably couldn’t get lost or if we got stuck or had mechanical failure, we would have a decent chance of hiking out or being found. Shortly after leaving the pavement, we entered a fair amount of buzz–people had set up camping trailers to use as basecamps. They’d jet around on their ATVs and side-by-sides from there. We also encountered a few classic, modified Broncos coming back from whatever adventure they had had. Within minutes, though, we were alone.
We drove deeper into the the rugged wilderness and unmarked trails crisscrossed everywhere. We tried to stay on what looked to be the most well used tracks. With each rotation of the tires forward, though, our plans for not getting lost or into trouble became more questionable. Accordingly, we began to discuss turning around early. And then…..
Just my luck! We spotted a trio of Jeeps stopped in the distance. We drove up to ask the drivers about the area and our position in it. As we got closer, we could see the Jeeps were modified, two of them heavily modified. That was a good sign–they were serious. Or maybe it was a warning sign that this area was not to be trifled with. Probably both.
The trio consisted of a local named Karen who was guiding her two friends Pete and Brenda, husband and wife, from nearby Palm Springs. Not only did Karen explain where we were, she invited us to roll with them. We immediately felt the relief of being with someone who knew the area and simply being with others in case we ran into trouble.
After enjoying a few hours of navigating undulating mounds of dirt, grinning through a few white-knuckle moments, and zooming through sandy washes, we negotiated an uneven, narrow slot, complete with a 90 degree turn up to a small plateau. We enjoyed the view and then started back down–first Karen, then Pete, then Brenda. Brenda’s Jeep sported 40 inch tires. In order to have such massive tires, her rig was modified such that the tires protruded completely outside of the wheel wells. Her Jeep’s modification was an asset in the wide sand washes and wide boulder strewn sections of trails, but in a tight, twisting crevice, her Jeep’s wide footprint was a liability. The vehicle’s tire sidewall caught the edge of a sharp rock that sliced it open. Fortunately, Brenda was able to roll slowly down the crevice on her flat tire to the sand below.
Understandably, Brenda was distraught–her new, expensive tire was destroyed. Also, because the tire blew, she had to roll down on her pricey beadlock wheel, which the rocks ground up. Furthermore, the side of her Jeep had hit the crevice wall on the way down, scratching her custom paint job. As Brenda coped with the shock, we got to work to change out her tire.
My son Max found and carried over a large, flat rock, upon which we could place a jack to lift up her Jeep from the soft sand. With the wheel off the ground, Pete wrestled to remove the wheel lug nuts with a standard lug wrench, but they wouldn’t budge. As luck would have it, my dad had given me a breaker bar and socket set for Christmas, which I had with me, still in the factory wrap! The breaker bar made short work of loosening the lug nuts. Now it was a matter of getting the massive tire off and putting it in the Jeep. The extra muscle power we provided helped with that as it did with removing the spare and getting that onto the rig, ready to roll, as the sun beat down on us.
We got Brenda back up and running. Without a spare, Brenda, Pete, and Karen wisely decided to depart back to civilization, but before they did, Brenda insisted, over my halfhearted objections, on giving me an ice cold Modelo. It tasted sweet. “Just my luck” had become their luck, too. After planning only a brief trip into this area to scratch the surface, we had the good fortune of spending the entire day in a deep dive with wonderful people. In turn, we were able to help them out of a difficult situation.
My version of “just my luck” is proactive and reactive. My approach is proactive because we tend to move toward what we are focusing on. When we are looking for good things to happen, we are more likely to find them and open the door to them. My take is reactive because it allows us to reflect on on all the serendipity in our lives and to be grateful.
My spin on “Just my luck” also provides balance. I am trained by my profession to be skeptical, to factor risk, and to be on guard against it. Also, I am deeply influenced by the philosophy of inversion propounded by Charlie Munger. When he looks at an issue, he inverts it. For example, instead of focusing on what one wants, one inverts the analysis and focuses on what one doesn’t want. Should I invest in company X? How can I make money that way? Invert it. How can I lose money in company X? Inversion illuminates all the warts and can help protect against stupid decisions. In fact, trying to avoid stupid decisions, is itself, simply the inversion of trying to make good decisions.
Inversion has served Munger and his partner Warren Buffett well: however, it does have its downsides. As successful as he is, Buffet has lamented that he has cost his shareholders a lot of money over the years by being too risk averse, by not making certain investments, by “sitting on my hands,” as he describes it. In adopting my version of “just my luck” I’m balancing my disposition toward inversion, skepticism, and defensiveness with a more upbeat outlook. It’s about having an attitude shift that keeps appropriate analysis and safeguards in place but that doesn’t allow those behavioral propensities to negate positive possibilities. “Just my luck” is about asking not only what if things go wrong but also asking what if things go right?
Spectrum of an Attitude of Luckiness
<—Unlucky———-Neutral———-Lucky—>
In the spectrum of feeling lucky, I don’t want to mope around feeling unlucky. To do so is irrational and unappreciative. Also, I don’t want to skip around feeling stupid-lucky, placing ridiculous bets. Nor do I want to be neutral–that is boring and misses out on the proactive and reactive benefits of feeling lucky. So for me, I am working on shifting from being to the left of Neutral to being a smidge to the right of Neutral on the Spectrum of an Attitude of Luckiness. I think that’s a healthy spot.
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
**Note. I realize that, ironically, my version of “just my luck” is an inversion of the traditional meaning of “just my luck,” and yet adopting my version is an attempt by me to shift away from too much inversion in my life. Charlie Munger wins, again!
**Second Note. My notion of “just my luck” is inspired by what I’ve read of Wayne Dyer’s take on the phrase. However, Dyer likely would be further to the right on my Spectrum of an Attitude of Luckiness than I am.
Link for Context: Middle-aged Man Rides the Wave of Abundancy Mindset, 2022!