Was It Luck – or Was It Preparation? - The Entrepreneurial Succession Reflection
- Quinten Taljaard
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 18
There is a moment every entrepreneur dreams of: when the deal is done, the signatures are dry, and the business they spent years building is now in the hands of new owners. For some, the exit feels like a windfall. For others, it is the culmination of deliberate, strategic groundwork. But to the outside world – and sometimes even to the founder themselves – the question lingers:
Was I just lucky? Or was I prepared?
The Luck Illusion
Gary Player, the South African golfing legend, once said: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
It is a phrase often quoted in sporting circles, but its relevance to business is profound. What appears as luck from the outside is often the result of intense, sustained effort behind the scenes – positioning, planning, and polishing long before the opportunity arrives.
It is easy to ascribe a successful sale to fortunate timing or a serendipitous buyer. But in truth, very few premium exits happen by chance. They are typically the product of years of preparation – and, importantly, positioning.
What the Research Says
Jim Collins in his seminal work Good to Great, studied companies that outperformed their peers over decades. He found that “great” companies were not luckier than others. Instead, they made disciplined, strategic choices and followed through consistently. As Collins puts it: “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness… is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”
Supporting this, Morten Hansen and Herminia Ibarra (INSEAD), in their research on high performers, argue that successful individuals and organisations operate within the ‘preparation zone’—where they actively manage what is within their control, while staying open to external opportunities. Their findings suggest that “luck” favours those who are primed to seize it.
Entrepreneurs: The Architects of Their Fortune
In our work advising business owners through succession and sale, we often encounter founders who initially attribute their offers to being “in the right place at the right time.” But upon closer inspection, we see:
A business with robust recurring revenue
Clean, well-structured financials
A defined leadership team below the founder
Clear value propositions, well articulated in the market
Resilient operational systems and technology adoption
These are not accidents. They are the hallmarks of preparation.
Of course, there are external forces we cannot control – market timing, buyer appetite, interest rates, sector trends. But the readiness of the business is squarely within the founder’s sphere of influence.
Luck May Knock – But Preparation Opens the Door
To borrow again from Gary Player, success comes not from swinging blindly and hoping for the best, but from putting in the hours on the driving range, long before the tournament begins.
For entrepreneurs considering their exit, the message is clear: Start preparing long before the buyer arrives. Your future valuation will likely depend less on luck than you think — and far more on the choices you make today.
If you are thinking about succession, positioning, or preparing your business for sale — let us talk. There is no harm in being lucky. But let us make sure you are also ready. Logan Gray International.
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