Luck

It always tends to gravitate towards bad luck as opposed to good. Good luck you might have one chance in a hundred of experiencing, whereas bad luck has got to be 99% likely to occur. Toxic positivity would declare ‘ you make your own luck’ but in the real world it doesn’t work like that. Outrageously bad luck will happen, like the time Mr.O’Grady walked in to the mapping office.

Many years ago I was working in this fucking racket, any form of employment could be described as a racket and this was no exception. A Mr.O’Grady, a name which has stuck with me as the years go by was the owner. You never saw Mr.O’Grady except maybe once a year. I was there at least a year before I passed Mr.O’Grady on the stairs at the upper part of the office one day and this pattern continued, an annual or at best a bi-annual sighting. So to be unlucky enough to encounter Mr.O’Grady outside of the office was something that could NOT happen. However as I said at the outset in this world bad luck reigns supreme.

Part of this fucking racket was working in offices of a legal nature outside of the main office. One day I was in one of these external offices working with another guy who had been out late the previous night drinking and was now hungover. The day was particularly slack, there was not enough work for one person let alone two, the hungover guy was very tired so I suggested he put his head on the desk and go asleep, you have no doubt guessed where this story is going. His head had literally touched the desk to go asleep and in walked Mr.O’Grady. ” I’m certainly not paying you to sleep” said Mr.O’Grady. ” Mr O’Grady I…” said the hungover guy. “No,No, No, you’re not talking your way out of this, I put my trust in you and this is how I’m repaid, sleeping at my expense” said Mr.O’Grady. I had to pinch myself severely not to burst into uproarious laughter. ” I want you in my office at 4.30 sharp” said Mr.O’Grady and stormed out. The hungover guy was bewildered, and started calculating what the odds of this happening was, after several calculations it turned out to be one in two billion. I never saw him again. The next day Mr O’Grady took me aside and said ” I had to ask for his resignation”. This was years ago so I would wager Mr.O’Grady is now in the graveyard, he was an old man then, and what became of the hungover guy I have no idea. I’ve been caught out in my own life many times since when taking a gamble on bad luck versus good. If something has a one in two billion chance of happening in a negative way you better believe it will.