You almost always have a choice. By acting as if you don't, you do nothing but make yourself a victim. Things like a plane crashing into your car as you are driving down a highway is bad luck. A lot of stuff people say is bad luck is not luck at all, its the result of poor choices.
I could say that the car wreck I got into at the beginning of this month was bad luck, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree and sympathize. In all actuality, it had nothing to do with luck. The woman driving the car that hit me made a bad choice by speeding. I made a bad choice to turn when I did instead of waiting patiently until I could be 110% sure there was no other traffic.
If you are accountable for your actions, life is always more positive. You have to make stuff happen for you instead of waiting for things to happen to you.
You're right, you can't make a choice to win and then just win. You can, however, win by making good choices throughout the course of the game. Poker is a game of skill, not luck. If it was just a game of luck, there would be no such thing as professional poker players. Consistently good poker players tend to be able to read their opponents and good with statistics and on the spot calculations, among other things. They don't sit there and hope that lady luck happens to deal them pocket aces and they hold all the way to the river.
A person who is dealt a royal flush at the start of the tournament will win that hand. There are always more hands to be played, and it isn't very likely that same person will be dealt a royal flush again or even a straight flush. Just because that person is chip leader after the first hand does not mean he will win the tournament.
I never said you don't have a choice. You
always have a choice. What I said is luck plays a
huge party in our lives. I even mentioned that you always have a choice. If you'd read what I said, I said that some people have more choices or less choices depending on how life deals them cards. Tom Cruise's kids will, for example, have more choices available in life, simply due to being Tom Cruise's children. He will have an acting career earlier in life, most likely without even trying, while others work their ass off to get a role as an actor, without getting much more then a background character in the back of a café, credited as "Man 5". Some people are born retarded, which already there puts a HUGE limit on the amount of choices they can make. Sure, they still have the small choices that won't impact their life too much, like if they should leave 1 min earlier or 1 min later then they usually would, whether to bring an umbrella or not, which clothes to chose. These choices aren't important, and unless they are extremely lucky or extremely unlucky, it won't make a huge impact on their lives.
That's why, if you'd read my post, I also mentioned folding. Some people can't play with the cards they're dealt (that is, the life position they are currently in), and simply fold. Folding can mean one of several things, just sitting around waiting for their lives to change, or the more drastic measure of suicide. Both of those are choices, neither very good ones, but still choices. With these cards, you only really have 4 choices that will make a huge impact on your life. They are
- "giving up" and waiting for something to happen
- Suicide
- Accept your situation and struggle onwards
- Really work to get out of the situation
1 leads to depression, 2 leads to death, 3 leads to living a perhaps happy life, possibly without much excitement. 4 can lead to what 1 hopes to achieve, but requires much more effort and skill. Here they come to a T section
- Bluffing
- Cheating
- Go back
Bluffing means playing with a poker face, sometimes a bit of lying, and trying to make your hand seem as good as possible in order to win over others. Situations where this is in place, is, for example, a job interview. You mention the good, and tone down the bad. Make the good seem better, and the bad not a very big deal. Cheating can involve, but isn't limited to, stealing. Go back means going back to the old cross intersection.
These are the base choices EVERYONE have, and is a huge network of roads and intersections. however, interesting things happen if we involve luck. Because, suddenly, pit falls and U-turns are introduced. A U-turn can be both good and bad. Can either be a turn for the better, or a turn for the worse, and is something you might not directly be able to affect. That is what
others affect in your life, such as the person hiring you or firing you. Sure, by not screwing up at work, you could keep your job and prevent coming to a U-turn by having the other person firing you. There's other U-turns though, such as simply being at the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time, which is what all your good and bad choices lead up to. This is part of luck. While life itself is just what a collection of our choices lead to, it is an unknown factor as we basically just pick a road and have no idea what it leads up to. Why I'll mention next.
While choosing road 4 could overall be more beneficial then choosing road 1, that also close the roads in the other 3 choices. The roads in the first choice, could lead to a U-turn where you, say, accidentally bump in to some guy or girl that you fall madly in love with, or taking the unusual way home and picking up a lotto ticket and win the jackpot. These are all things that you might have missed if you had chosen the other roads. While it is due to the course of our actions, it is something unforeseeable and unknown, thus luck. All of the initial 4 roads could have lead to something better, just the means to achieving it differs.
One person's road could go through a green field, while another's go through the desert. Some people just start out better then others, and whichever road they chose might lead to something better then the guy in the desert. Life is a game, and our choices is the playing field. How you chose to play your cards is up to you. But in the end, your future will always be unknown, and luck will always be your greatest ally or most formidable foe.
And yes, I know. I also already mentioned that. When I Said dealt a Royal Flush at the start (read: birth) I simply meant that he would have a better start in the tournament (read: life) then the players.
PS: I'm sure you can figure out what a pit fall is.