1. Is it enough tobe at the right place at the right time?
By HichamEl Amrani
Most people thinkthatbeingatthe rightplace in the righttime isthe keyto successintheircareer.I
have grownto believe otherwise.Itisnotenoughto be at the right place inthe right time.Itismore
importantto be the rightpersonat the rightplace inthe right time.
Allowme toexplain.
The belief that being in the right place at the right time means that luck, somehow, has some
magical power over our lives. It also means that life/luck is fair to some and unfair to others. This
belief isnotonlyunfounded, but is also disempowering. It strips us of one of the most exceptional
gifts that humans have been endowed with: the power of choice.
Someone once toldme thatluckis whenopportunitymeetspreparation.It took me a week to grasp
the import of this statement. My first reaction, quite naturally, was to deny its essence with the
most eloquent arguments I could muster at that point. The more arguments (excuses) I came up
with, the more I found myself inclined to accepting the truth behind the statement. Accepting the
statementalsomeantthatI had to punishmyself emotionallyforall the opportunities I’d lost in the
past. I had to punish myself for not meeting deadlines, not following up on that lead, not learning
newskills,notdevelopingmyselfenoughtomeetthe criteriaof the new opportunitythatpresented
itself in different forms. But then, I decided to exercise the power of choice. And, once I started
preparing myself for the new opportunities, miracles crept into my life on all levels, literally.
Allow me to ask you a few questions: who are you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Do
you even know your strengths and weaknesses? How about your emotional make up? Do you get
stressedeasilyordoyouholdup strong againstchallengesandadversity?How well do you relate to
others? How well do you trust others? How much do you believe in yourself? How is your self -
confidence?Howmuchare youable to act positively despite adversity, despite uncertainty, despite
fear, despite the absence of hope? Doyoubelieve that success in career and life is a mere stroke of
luck or is the choice with you to craft that success?
You see,beingthe rightpersonatthe right place inthe righttime followsasimple natural law; a law
that states: it isthe inside thatcreatesthe outside.Itisthe invisible thatcreatesthe visible. It is the
roots that create the fruits. In the tree of professional and personal life, your fruits are merely the
result of your roots. Most people try to change the fruits at the first hint of adversity or challenge.
Such individuals remainaspassive bystanders to the dynamism around them and are never able to
achieve an enduringchange intheirlives. Why? Simply because that’s the law of nature and we, as
humans, are a part of this law - not above it.
The space of thisblogis too shortto enumerate the hundredsof people I have met who can be held
as successful testimonies to this law. But there is one story that I feel compelled to share - the
inspiring story of a friend. Let’s call him Mohamed.
Mohamedand I wentto the same highschool. He came froman economicallychallenged family - so
impoverishedthathe would showup inflimsyhome slippers in the thick of winter. To our surprise,

2. he suddenlystopped attendingschool forafew weeks.Whenhe returned,we learnt that he lost his
father.Fewmonthslater, he losthismother.Mohamedwasthe eldestof six children.Itseemed asif
life/luck was being hugely unfair to him. His uncle was generous enough to take them under his
wing. He wasn’t well off either but couldn’t think of sending his nephews and nieces to the
orphanage. I lost touch with Mohamed as we chose different paths after graduating from high
school.
Nearlytenyearslater,I bumpedintoMohamed while strolling down the old town in my native city
Fez, Morocco. I learnt, to my utmost happiness that Mohamed had become an ambassador.
I have shared this story hundreds of times in seminars and private conversations and each time I
narrate the story, I still end up getting goose bumps.
You wouldhave figuredbynowthatMohamed trulyillustratesthe fact that it is not enough to be at
the right place inthe right time. It is more important to be the right person at the right place in the
right time.
And the time is right now!