This last week has been odd and different.
Everyone slows down.
The diary clears.
The whole family piles into one place.
I’ve enjoyed it.
Long walks.
I ate too much.
Drank too much.
Said the right thing.
Said the wrong thing.
The usual story with those relatives you don’t see all year.
And every year someone says, “Next Christmas we’re going away so we don’t have to do all this.”
We never do, of course.
Pausing properly for once though did me good.
But while sitting with a group of people, reflecting on the year just gone, someone said, “You’ve been lucky.”
I smiled.
But it annoyed me.
Because I’ve never felt lucky. Ever.
Luck, to me, is when opportunity meets resource.
And the resource part doesn’t fall out of the sky.
Every business I’ve built started as a scrappy idea. A germ of something. Sometimes a blue ocean. Sometimes just a better version of what already existed.
And once you’re in, you’re in up to your elbows.
There’s no reverse gear. Only forward.
Even when you get it wrong.
Especially when you get it wrong.
That’s what real entrepreneurs do.
They take fear, rejection, shame, and the market saying “no thanks”, and they squeeze the idea from another angle. Present it differently. Tweak it. Rework it. Do it anyway.
So being told it was “luck” annoyed me at first.
Then it made me reflective.
Which is exactly what this quiet week is for.
I wrote my resolutions. Proper ones.
More sleep. Eight hours. No excuses.
Less phone. Less scrolling. I’m dreadful for it.
And one rule I’m taking seriously into the new year:
If I’ve got nothing good to say about someone, I’ll say nothing at all.
Never be bitter. Just be better.
That’s how I’m stepping into the year ahead.
And one thing I won’t be relying on is good luck.
Because luck doesn’t build businesses.
Action does.
Here’s to a prosperous 2026!
James
P.S - Why shouldn’t you iron a four-leaf clover?
You don’t want to press your luck.