Lady Luck how some luck is important for success

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 71 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week I want to talk about luck and how it's more important than you think to making you a successful detectorist.

Hey everyone before we start I want to thank you for listening to the podcast and I hope you enjoy the show this week  but before we begin I want to give you the following information. 

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 Hi Everybody I hope you had a great week hunting this week, I myself had to take care of some family stuff related to my dads passing so not a Great week for detecting but i'm determined to catch up in the coming weeks. I am still working on my kids book making some progress this week but im only realising now it is harder to write for pre teens than any other group as I cant exactly talk about phase shifts on the receiving frequency now can I, I also over used the word Awesome which meant I had to re write a load of it but all in a days work of learning how to write I suppose and I expect it be re written a few times before im happy.

This week youtube suggested a video called The success paradox by Veritasium Ill put it in the show notes,

So this video I watched as it related to success and why people are successful and in the video the guy discusses and shows really the relationship between talent, working hard and luck. 

So to synopsis the video. 

Essentially it is not enough to have talent and work hard but that you need some level of luck for example in the nasa selection process, 18300 candidates apply with 11 only being selected in the end assuming that all work hard, have some talent and some level of luck say 95% of the selection selection score is down to talent and hard work while the remaining 5% is down to luck. 

when a random luck score is applied to all the candidates, coupled with an assumed score of their performance talent and hard work this results in 9.4 of the 11 selection being directly as a result of luck not hard work or talent that got you close to the finish line but luck got you over it much like much like Bolt breaking the world record for 100M with a lucky tail wind pushing him along. 

The video also made another great point that if you know the result is down to luck then you are less likely to work hard to get you to the finish line and the paradox being that once you are successful it is important to realise it was down to luck also so a look don’t look scenario. 

Listen im not doing the video justice so check it out it’s a real eye opener, now I was ruminating on the video on whether I was going to discuss it in a upcoming presentation I have to do in work when the thought occurred to me how does this relate to our beloved hobby. I know I always say it research and hard work is key you have to put in the hard hours first before you even swing a coil and clearly it is but it seems luck also has a huge part to play in it. So as long as you are aware that luck has a part to play ensuring it doesn’t take away from your process of research and hard work gridding and covering every inch of a site then you should be fine but when you do strike it lucky make sure to pay homage to the gods of luck for getting you over the finish line.

So while we are talking about luck I want to give you a list of my top 5 metal detecting find/s hoards and starting from lowest to highest.

In position 5 

we have to go with the Stafordshire Hoard regarded as the greatest angle Saxon hoard found by terry Herbert in 2009 I remember it well at the time but when terry was interviewed he said he was just doing a test hunt or survey hunt on a new permission when he started to pull out gold and by the time he was finished he had pulled out over 3500 pieces of gold so much so that he was seeing gold every time he closed his eyes. In the end Birmingham museum bought the hoard for a whopping 3.3 million GBP or an eye watering 4.5 million us Dollars. 

In position 4 

We have the Milton Keynes hoard named after the town it was found in the UK found in by Gordon Heritage and Michael Rutland in September 2000, You might know of Gordon Heritage from Minelab fame and as far as i'm aware is the only content creator to have actually found an actual life changing hoard. Anyways onto the hoard, the hoard consisted of 2 gold torcs and 3 gold bracelets weighting in at just under 4.5 pounds and valued at the time as 290,000 pounds or $581K Dollars. Not a lucky as most on the list as the area of Milton Keynes had produced several hoards over the years but more of a calculated survey of the area testifying to Gordons and Michaels hard work and extensive research. I have him on my list as I imagine that hoard allowed Gordon to live the dream and set himself up as a full time detectorist and content creator, so i'm a little green with envy on this one

In position 3  

We have the Butte Nugget weighing in at 6 pounds found in Butte County in California in 2014 by an unnamed prospector who initially thought it was a piece of random trash and only dug it on the possibility of there being smaller gold nuggets under neath it, I  know if it was me I would be like yeah I totally knew what I was doing, I knew exactly what it was when it overloaded my detector. Could you imagine the blast you would get off that.  Anyways the nugget is said to be worth in excess of 400 000 dollars and is only second place to the Mojave nugget which is the largest known nugget found in California.

In Position 2 we are really getting into slot machine luck here with the Rio Rancho Meteorite found in New Mexico in September 2011 by a 13 year old boy called Jansen Lyons , Scientists believe that the meteorite has existed for 10000 years and is a L6 ordinary chondrite weighing in a 2 pounds now whats lucky is that once Jansens Grand father found out his grandson was into meteorites he put a metal detector in his hands resulting in the find but what I like even more about this find is that Jansen never sold it he still has it and has only donated a small piece of it to University of New Mexico Albuquerque. Good on you Jansen.

And finally in position 1 and a hoard that makes every detector sick to their tits and that is the Stirling Torc’s which were found by a Scottish man called David booth in 2009 again a great year for hoards in the uk, David who was out on his very first metal detecting adventure with a very basic detector. He had done some site research and had the farmers permission but is quoted as saying the following “I parked up and got the metal detector out. 
There was an area of flat ground behind the car, and I thought, I’ll just scan this first, before I head out into the field. Literally about seven steps behind where I had parked, I found them”. The hoard has been described as the most significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork in Scotland and is said to be of international significance. When found David took them home to give them a wash under a tap, The Hoard consisted of 4 torcs valued at a staggering 462 000 British pounds which was presented to David after a period of time had passed to raise the funds as it was imperative to Scotland that the torcs stayed in Scotland. In Ireland we would Call David a jammy Fecker but fair play what a find, I wonder does David still detect id love to know if the hobby still has some excitement for hime after that life changing find.

So that’s Luck and my top 5 lucky detector finds. Remember with all the hard work you put in you still need some luck to get you over the line but don’t forget to do the hard work and don’t forget to thank lady luck when you hit the big time with a hoard of your own.

Wrap Up 

That’s it for this week’s I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast.

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 Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will chat to you all again next week. 

Get out there eyes down and Happy Hunting.