As I used to tell my students, stuff happens…
As I used to tell my students, stuff happens in life, apples fall unexpectedly into your lap, but it helps if you’re standing in the right orchard.
— from Before Takeoff (front matter) · 21 letters on life and its challenges by Charles handy
In the book
And do not be discouraged when the same hard lesson keeps coming back around — the only penalty for resisting a lesson is that it repeats itself until you finally learn it. Luck is real, but you can position yourself for it: as I used to say, apples do fall unexpectedly into your lap, but it helps enormously if you are standing in the right orchard. Mind the small things, too — ignoring the little problems lets them pile up until they run your life, and the difference between success and failure is often nothing but details; sometimes it seems there are no little things at all, given the consequences that grow from them. — Before Takeoff (front matter)