Branch Ricky Illustration
Branch Ricky Illustration

I was a senior in high school when my Literature teacher first inspired me with this quote from Branch Ricky. The full quote as best as I could find it recorded is:

“Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.” Source Also Wikipedia

As a high school senior, it was important for me to hear that hard work and success are no accident or twist of fate. That good fortune isn’t created in an effortless vacuum,even when it feels like it is.

As a budding professional, I used this quote to slowly grasp that preparation, researching, collaborating, and measuring is the surer path to favorable results. Today that process are my keys to solving problems, or not solving problems within a design, as well as in life.