I used to partake in an Oscar pool with my friend Barbara and her family.  Year after year, whether I’d see the films or not, I’d win. Sometimes I’d intentionally put down a crazy answer to lose, and no, I’d still win. It got ridiculous. (I did have a foolproof method for picking the documentaries –any one that had a colon and/or children in the title i.e. Tea Bags: Children of the Kettle)

Three years ago I was walking my dogs and I thought, “The only luck I ever have is in the Warnke Family Oscar Pool.” And so, I quit. If you get one shot at luck a year and you’re wasting it on potentially winning $35 and irritating your best friend’s family, it doesn’t really make good business sense to stay in. A month after I pulled out of the pool, I sold my first book. Good things continued to happen, doors opened, fortune came calling. (I think Obama won because of this, too)  I also started enjoying the Oscars again (MICKEY! MICKEY! MICKEY!) So what is it? Are the Warnke’s in some pact with the devil? I can’t say for sure, but I do know that in a Feng Shui sort of way, stopping up that hole, that leak of luck, changed my life.

So… let that be a lesson to you!