The Pipe Was Not the Whole Story

 In The Luck Illusion, a pipe bursts above The Cornerstone only days before the business is due to open.

From the outside, it looks like bad timing and bad luck. That is an easy conclusion to reach, but the pipe itself was only part of the story.

What made the damage so serious was everything that already surrounded it. Savings were thin, insurance was limited, the building was old, the espresso machine was second-hand, there was no investor, no spare money and very little room for delay.

The pipe caused the damage, but the lack of margin around the business made recovery so difficult.

The same event would not have the same effect on everyone. For one person, it might be an inconvenience that could be repaired and forgotten. For another, it could be enough to bring everything to an end.

For Walsdos, it became the point at which the business could no longer recover.

That is why the word luck is not enough. It describes what happened from the outside, but it leaves out the conditions that gave the event its power.

The important question is not simply why the pipe burst.

It is why that one setback was enough to destroy everything.

That is the kind of question The Luck Illusion asks, and it is also what the word “luck” so often leaves out.