We’ve all said it.

“When I was a boy, we left home around 7am, went to the beach/park/bush/up the street for a whole day and came back when it was getting dark for dinner. Our parents didn’t worry about us (I know now that that’s just not true), and we were completely safe the whole time.”

Apparently, bad people and bad stuff didn’t happen in the 70′s.

I was one of 7 kids in my family and on some days, the 7 of us would have been in 7 different places on Earth with my parents in an 8th. It would have been a nightmare to keep track of us all, especially since we didn’t even know where we were headed most mornings when we headed out on our bikes.

Now, I’m a Dad to 2 (soon to be 3) kids under 3 years old. It’s a while before they are heading off on their bikes for the day but, even when the time comes, how ready will I be for that to happen?

Surely the world in 2012 is a darker, more dangerous place than it was in 1977 right?

I mean, I can remember bad things happening when I was a kid to other kids I knew. And a couple of bad things happened to me too but by and large, it wasn’t the scary place it is today.

Or is it just because now I am the Dad and I think about my beautiful little daughter and my mischievous son and wonder what the hell they could get up to without me looking at them 24/7?

How do I tell them that the world is this big, scary, terrible place without making them never want to leave home at all? Wait … that’s it!

“You’re so lucky.”

“You’re so lucky, you work from home.”

“You’re so lucky, you have your own business.”

“You’re so lucky, you can work whenever you want.”

“You’re so lucky, you can watch your kids grow up and be part of their life.”

“You’re so lucky, you have a beautiful and talented wife.” (Well OK maybe that one is a bit lucky).

But the rest of it: Lucky? Bullshit.

The truth of it is that everything in my life currently (the good stuff and the bad stuff) is there because I have made it. None of it was luck. Nobody offered me a job where I work from home. Nobody offered to give me a business that they had built up from nothing. Nobody offered me the chance to spend more time with my kids.

I made all of it.

And before you think I’m a wanker who’s just boasting about his good fortune, think about this. If I was able to build this life and this lifestyle for myself with basically no training, not much nous, but heaps of determination and a clear vision, then why couldn’t you?

This is 2012. Loads of people work from home. With their kids and partners around them. In a lot of industries now, there is very little (if any) benefit from having employees or directors actually office-bound. And with the rise and rise of online and social media marketing, EVERYONE has the opportunity to do something they wouldn’t have been able to do 10 years ago. Even 5 years ago.

But you know what? Most people don’t want to.

And a lot of them don’t want to because getting on the train and commuting to the city and back for 4 hours every day is what they have always done. Working in a cubicle as a phone monkey is what they have always done. Having their creativity and passion stifled at every turn is what has always happened to them. So that’s the way it will always be.

And it’s sad. Because I know a lot of really talented, really clever people who are doing that exact thing every day of their life. And I also know a lot of pretty un-talented and not very clever people (myself included) who are making something of themselves online or in blogging or as social media ‘experts’ (I know a LOT of them…).

And the commuting phone monkeys all say to me that I’m lucky because they want me to say to them that they are unlucky. But that’s not true either. My 2 year old doesn’t have ‘accidents’ anymore because when it happens, she has meant to do it. And it’s the same in our lives. One of the most cliched adages is “if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten” and it is SO SO true.

So next time you are about to tell someone how lucky they are, think about what they have given up to get that ‘luck’. Think about the choices they’ve made and the chances they’ve taken. Think about how happy you could be if you took a chance. Think about how much more time you could spend with those you love, or surfing or playing golf or whatever it is that makes you tick.

You never know, you could be lucky too.