Making your fortune

Many would say my mother is lucky. She describes herself as resilient and optimistic. Born Cornelia Vandenassem in Holland in 1932 during the Depression, she was the third oldest of eight children. The Second World War invaded her life at a young age; she remembers well the German occupation, air raids and people starving in the cities. Just before her 13th birthday, the war ended. Two years later, her mother died of cancer.

My grandfather's decision to immigrate with the family to Canada was devastating. Then 19, my mother left behind her home, boyfriend and friends, moving to southwestern Ontario and a farmhouse without running water, electricity or indoor plumbing. A few months later the Vandenassems moved into a tiny house beside a farm owned by a family named Wallace; when she was 21, my mother got a job helping Mrs. Wallace with housework. She also spent endless hours picking cucumbers and plucking turkeys.

A friendship formed with the Wallaces' son, Alvin. Eventually they married and bought the Wallace farm, weathering a bankruptcy to build it into an operation now worth $1.5 million. My parents raise crops, hogs and 30,000 turkeys annually. At 73, my mother feels she's been blessed beyond her expectations and is optimistic about the future.

Her indomitable spirit has inspired me all my life. You can get through anything and be successful, she taught me, if you do your best, apply yourself and take advantage of opportunity.

We all know people who, like my mother, seem to have it all, who appear to have spent a lifetime being smiled upon by Lady Luck. But other, more insightful, observation shows that these same "lucky" people have a lot in common: they joyfully embrace opportunity, take chances, work hard and look for ways to turn setbacks into advantages. In short, they make their own breaks. And you can, too.

Luck maker 1: Open up to opportunity
Often, people who appear to simply be in the right place at the right time have, in fact, worked hard to keep themselves open to coincidence and its timing. Susan RoAne, bestselling author of How to Create Your Own Luck (Wiley, 2004), says successful people are those who embrace life's "you never know" possibilities. Whether it's launching a new career or landing hard-to-get concert tickets, being "lucky" means recognizing opportunities when they present themselves and being ready to seize them.

Marta,* who had married her boyfriend as a pregnant teenager, endured years of abuse before she resolved to leave him, to create a better life for her and her daughter and to build her own good fortune. She went back to school and attended business college for a year. Shortly after graduating, she bumped into an acquaintance who told her that a secretary at her workplace was leaving and encouraged Marta to apply. To Marta's delight, she was hired. Several years later, when her workload was beginning to diminish, Marta, who adores greeting cards, sent her résumé to a fledgling card company. Again she was hired. The company went bankrupt a year later; however, a charitable organization with which the card company had shared office space, and to which Marta had provided contract services, offered her a position helping to provide resources and support to the poor in a developing country. The opportunity is helping Marta fulfill a dream: to affect people's lives in a positive way. She has travelled to Haiti twice, is happily remarried and enjoys a close relationship with her daughter and grandchild. "Wealth is not part of my plans, but happiness is," says Marta vehemently.

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