Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it

Lucille Ball, a woman of courage and brilliance, once declared: “Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work—and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” In this declaration, she tears away the veil of chance and reveals the eternal truth that destiny bows not to fortune’s dice, but to the sweat of the brow and the clarity of vision. For luck, to her, was not a gift of the heavens, but the fruit of labor joined with wisdom.

The ancients too mistrusted the blind goddess of Fortune. They spoke of her wheel that spun without reason, lifting some and crushing others. The wise did not trust her, but built their lives upon virtue, discipline, and unyielding effort. Ball’s words carry this same spirit: that those who “bank” upon luck surrender their strength, while those who work carve their own fate from the stone of hardship.

She reminds us also of discernment—the power to know what is true opportunity and what is only illusion. Many labor tirelessly yet squander their strength chasing shadows, mistaking mirages for treasure. True wisdom is not only to toil, but to see with clear eyes where to plant one’s seed, and when to harvest. Thus, hard work alone is not enough; it must be joined with understanding, or else it risks being wasted.

Her words burn with a warning: beware those who live by luck. They are wanderers without compass, dreamers without anchor, and their path will often lead to ruin. For reliance upon chance weakens the soul, while reliance upon effort strengthens it. In her creed lies the dignity of self-reliance—the heroic will that refuses to leave life to accident, but insists upon shaping it with one’s own hands.

Let the generations remember: do not entrust your future to luck, but to your labor, your courage, and your wisdom. Recognize true opportunity when it passes, and seize it without hesitation. For as Lucille Ball teaches, the crown of life is not given by chance—it is won through hard work, sharpened vision, and the unyielding will to create one’s own fortune.