Lucky me...

I am feeling disturbed after checking that mail. For all others that is a usual mail, results of weekly corporate quiz. Am I disturbed because my name is not there in the lucky winners list or is it because of the discussion I had in the morning with my manager?

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My senior manager is a reasonable guy. He listens to all my questions with patience and tries to answer at least few of them. I met him in the morning to discuss about the chances of my promotion. He listened to my story, nodded his head and said “See Mr., I understand that you got the qualifications to get promoted but you know, there are company policies. You should spend at least the prescribed time with company to get the promotion. Of course there are exceptional cases, but we should not take them exceptions as base. Wait for next cycle”

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I have been sending the answers to the quiz every week without fail from last six months. And check the mail for the lucky winners. Every week I see all the names except mine. Seems luck is not favoring me in any endeavor. Should I stop sending the answers? Should I keep trying till I get lucky or shall I stop because I am not lucky?

Is that luck is not favoring me in my trails or I am not trying till I get lucky?

The optimistic side of my brain started giving logical reasoning “See Mr., there are 300 correct answers every week and some 10 lucky winners. So there is a probability that you will win very soon” and the pessimistic side of my brain “Come on Mr., you keep trying from six months i.e. 24 weeks and 240 lucky winners. You are not in that 240! You got never lucky in your life so far. So leave the quiz aside and relax”

Optimistic side: “What relax? What is there is trying for it. You won’t loose anything, it is just five minutes”

Pessimistic side: “You wont loose anything but why trying and getting frustrated every week”

Optimistic side: “Frustration is too big word. You are not frustrated because of the quiz result. You are disturbed because of the discussion in the morning.”

Pessimistic side: “See, you got qualifications but no luck. Similarly you will keep trying for the quiz and will never win”

Optimistic side: “Come on, you mixing up two different things. Promotion is not in your hands but the quiz is in your hands you may win or may not win if you try. But for sure you will never win if you won’t try.”

Pessimistic side: “You tried so many things so many times and never got lucky. Why wasting time on this when you are never lucky?”

Optimistic side: “At this point of time we are talking about the quiz. Not the past. You are not lucky in the past does not mean the same for the future too. And you are not wasting great amount of time here. It is just 5 min per week”

Pessimistic side: “Okay, tell me what we should do now”

Optimistic side: “That’s a good boy. Send the answers and leave the restJ”

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I returned from the meeting and logged on to the system. Couple of mails with the same subject line. One of them is from corporate id with quiz results and others are the forward of the same results mail from colleagues. Opened the colleagues mail first, it says “Congrats for winning the weekly quiz!!!” Immediately opened the results mail, wow, my name is there in the list of lucky winners. I am the lucky winner for first time ever. So much of thinking a week back and with in a week got lucky. Feeling so lucky…

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Couple of more weeks passed…

About to leave for lunch, colleagues are waiting; a mail pops up on the screen “Conclusion of promotions”. Phone rings, a call from one of the senior manager “Hi, congrats for getting promoted!!!” Don’t know what to say “Thanks”

Quickly opened the mail… My name is there in the list of promoted candidates…

Started getting congrats mails and calls on my mobile.

Immediately walked to the senior manager and asked him what happened after I had a discussion with him. He smiled and said “Yeah, it may not be possible. I and the other senior manager thought of giving it a try. It usually does not happen but seems things are working for you well. You seem to have luck in your favor”

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Everybody saying I am lucky… Am I lucky?