the.com/lucky break
the universe shuffling the deck and accidentally dealing you a winning hand
means A sudden, unearned stroke of good fortune that turns a situation in your favor.
from A 20th-century Americanism. 'Break' had long carried the sense of a turn of luck — likely from gambling and games of chance, where a 'break' was how the dice or the cards fell. By the early 1900s 'a break' meant simply an opportunity or piece of luck, and 'lucky break' (along with its sour twin, 'tough break') hardened into a fixed phrase, much of it riding on the slangy talk of pool halls, racetracks, and Hollywood.
- origin
- Billiards term for a cleanly scattered break shot
- survivor bias
- Losers' bad luck rarely makes the highlight reel
- penicillin
- Born from a moldy petri dish left uncleaned
- preparation
- Often just readiness colliding with rare opportunity
steve jobs malaria diagnosis — jobs contracted malaria in 1982 during a trip to india, which he later credited with spiritual awakening that shaped apple's design philosophy
jk rowling rejected manuscript — harry potter rejected by 12 publishers before bloomsbury accepted it in 1997, becoming the best-selling book series ever
colonel sanders fried chicken — sanders perfected his chicken recipe at age 62 after losing his job, franchising kfc in 1952 to become a $20 billion company