Build Relationships to Create Luck

Jody Maberry Show episode 388

“Keep showing up, keep speaking up, and most importantly, build relationships.”

Some of the most important opportunities in my career started with a conversation I wasn’t sure would lead anywhere.

Daniel Cohen returned to the show recently, but this time he was the one asking the questions. After talking about the lucky breaks that helped shape his own career at Disney and Netflix, Daniel wanted to know which people had made the biggest difference in mine. Two names immediately came to mind.

The first was Jack Hart, a park manager who took a chance on me when I was trying to make an unlikely career change. I had been working as a financial analyst at a bank and wanted to become a park ranger. I barely passed the civil service exam, and I wasn’t one of the highest-scoring candidates in my interview. Jack hired me anyway.

He later told me he simply had a feeling I would be a good ranger. He became a mentor who helped shape my career long after we stopped working together.

Years later, another opportunity came from a question I decided was worth asking.

I had started the Park Leaders Show and wanted to explore what national parks could learn from Disney’s themed parks. Lee Cockerell, the former executive vice president of Walt Disney World, seemed like the perfect person to talk to. I assumed he would decline, but decided to invite him anyway.

What I didn’t know was that Lee had a family connection to the National Park Service. He agreed to the interview, and that one conversation eventually led to years of working together on Creating Disney Magic, the Cockerell Academy and other projects.

Looking back, I certainly benefited from good luck. But there was also a decision behind each opportunity. I pursued a job for which I wasn’t the obvious candidate. I reached out to someone I assumed might say no.

That’s what I appreciate about Daniel’s perspective on creating luck. You can’t predict which conversations will change your life, but you can choose to have them.

And sometimes, the opportunity you almost talked yourself out of becomes the one that changes everything.