The Fates Are Fickle. Your Marketing Shouldn’t Be.
A dead alternator, a no way pile, and why I believe in chance but not in leaving my business to it. Luck is real, but a plan is better (and lets you take advantage of “luck”).
In Greek mythology, the Moirai — the three Fates — controlled every mortal life. Clotho spun the thread. Lachesis measured it. Atropos cut it. Even Zeus couldn’t overrule them.
It’s a fun story if you’re inclined to enjoy mythology. However, waiting on fate is a terrible marketing strategy.
If you’re waiting for customers to find you — waiting for the right person to stumble across your website, or hoping your name comes up in conversation at the right moment — you’re handing your business plan to three fickle goddesses with a pair of shears. To market your business, you need a plan. Whether that’s a complex strategy with ad spend, multiplatform outreach, and a website that converts — or something simpler, like a clear offer on a landing page and a newsletter that builds trust (and an audience) over time — the common denominator is action.
Not hope.
Not fate.
Action.
I don’t believe in fate. Or “meant to be.” I think that belief leads to a learned powerlessness — an excuse to stop doing the work because the universe will sort things out.
But I do think we massively underestimate the role of chance. Not fate. Not manifestation. Just the plain, dumb reality that small random events can bend the entire arc of a life.
There’s science behind this. In 2018, a team of Italian researchers simulated a thousand careers over 40 years and found that the most successful people weren’t the most talented — they were moderately talented people who encountered the most lucky random events. Talent did play a role; in that a talented individual is better equipped to take advantage of a fortuitous event; but it wasn’t close to a guarantee of success. Their takeaway: we miss a critical piece of the success picture when we focus only on personal ability. FYI, it’s a fascinating article Read it here: Scientific American
The old line attributed to Seneca — “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” — is partly right. You do need to be prepared enough to recognize a good thing when it shows up. But the showing-up part? You can’t schedule that.
Two stories of random chance (and my choices) sending my life down entirely separate paths.
The No Way Pile. In 1994, I applied for an editorial internship at AIIM, a professional trade association. Got the job. A few years later, I became editor. While cleaning out the office, I found the intern applications. My resume was in a manila folder with “No Way” written on the outside. Now, I knew I wasn’t the first intern. John Harney had brought in a journalism student who was apparently so annoying she was dumped after 2 weeks. Never asked him why he pulled me in after that. But that one act set the course of my career for the next 20-plus years (and even now as I’m back in that industry).
The Alternator. Sophomore year at Southern Miss. I was supposed to drive to Jackson to visit a woman I’d been writing letters to all summer. My alternator died. The replacement part was supposed to come in Thursday, car fixed Friday, I’d be on my way. Part didn’t come in.
So I ended up in my buddy Jason’s dorm room that evening. Called Rebecca, told her I couldn’t make it. Literally as I hung up the phone, a woman named Candice walked in from the party next door, slid down the wall (she was a wee bit buzzed and took a wrong turn to the bathroom), and we started talking. Two weeks later, she smacked me on the head with a rolled-up program at a campus concert. I crawled over the seat and sat next to her. We were together from that night in 1990 until 2007. Two daughters. One grandson.
If the alternator part had arrived on time, I drive to Jackson. I never meet Candice. My daughters don’t exist. Everything after that moment is different.
Fate? Nah, just a logistical failure of a part not arriving on schedule.
Chance put me in Jason’s room that night. But I still had to talk to the woman who slid down the wall. John pulled my resume from the No Way pile — but I still had to show up and do the work once I got the interview.
You can’t control the random events. But you can be ready to take advantage of them when they arrive. And in marketing, you don’t have to wait for chance to put you in front of people. You can go build something that does it on purpose.
The Fates are fickle. Your marketing shouldn’t be. Stop waiting for Clotho to spin you some customers. Go build something.
PS — If you’ve been meaning to start a newsletter but keep waiting for the right moment, the right template, the right name that’s the Fates laughing at you while Atropos sharpens her shears. I help businesses build newsletters that show up consistently so you’re not relying on chance to bring customers to your door. Reply to this email or hit me at bryant@simplyusefulmarketing.co and let’s create your own fate.