“Some guys have all the luck”, croons Rod Stewart.
But do you believe that? Is luck really just a random chance that fall upon some people and not others? Is there something you can do to maximise your potential to “be lucky”? I think so, and Professor Richard (not me) Wiseman (a real person) has spent years studying the luck factor, and has concluded that there are indeed ways to enhance your luck.
In his book, he details 4 essential principles of luck:
- Maximize Your Chances to Be Lucky
- Listen to Your Instincts
- Expect to Be Lucky
- Look on the Bright Side
If you’re interested to know more, you should pick up a copy of his book.
But in this post, I wanted to touch on my own interpretation of luck. It has its similarities to his principles, but characterized a little differently.
Luck as a mindset
As important as it is to be at the right place at the right time, I would argue it is also just as important, if not more, to cultivate the right mindset to look out for opportunities. If an opportunity is right in front of you, it would present itself to many other people as well.
Often times, lady luck will be right there staring you in the face, offering you a smile. If only you’d look up, smile back, and take her hand.
How do we develop that mindset then?
To me, the most important aspect is for me to understand and realise that there are infinitely more things I know nothing about vs things that I do know something about.
Once I recognize and embrace this truth, I can then go about absorbing knowledge, information and new perspectives I might otherwise have been closed to, or arrogantly ignorant of, thereby closing myself to new opportunities that could have been knocking.
Have a curiosity to things around you
In his book, Professor Wiseman had his group of “lucky” and “unlucky” folks do an experiment. In the experiment, he gave them a newspaper, and told them to count the number of images in it and see which group could do it faster. On page 2, he had the text “Stop counting the images. There are a total of 43 images in this newspaper.”
Of course, more of the “lucky” ones spotted it and stopped counting in seconds. So, were they more lucky, or simply more observant of their surroundings? This reminds me of the youtube video that went viral years ago, where we were asked to count the number of basketball passes, and totally missed the dancing gorilla.
Many of us go through life with our heads down, drowned in our own thoughts. Maybe we should look around more.
Question things, then question some more
The 10th man rule
Have you seen the film World War Z? In one of the scenes in Jerusalem, Mossad chief Jurgen Warmbrunn references a 10th man rule: If, in a group of 10, 9 people come to a unanimous conclusion based on facts presented on a situation, it is the duty of the 10th person to act as a loyal dissenter, and assume the opposite is true, and to try and find evidence to back that up.
What is basically means is to not jump to conclusions, but to read up about these subjects yourself, learn about all the arguments both for and against, and come up with your own conclusion.
It also ties into first principles theory, which seeks to re-evaluate all previous assumptions, and try to find the simplest truth around a problem. Elon Musk famously uses first principles thinking to create reusable rockets in SpaceX, considerably bringing down the cost of making and using rockets.
You’re so lucky you got into bitcoin early!
So, some people are getting these types of proclamations. Is it all luck though? Bitcoin is an open source protocol, open to everyone across the world. If you have internet access, you would have had tons of opportunity to read, learn and form your own opinions about it. We’ve all had the same exact information.
Even now, there are still many people (the majority, in fact) who, at the sound of the words bit and coin, immediately turn up their noses and shout “SCAM!” or “Bubble!”.
But if you really think about it, the current Fiat system is the biggest reverse bubble ever seen. It is ever inflationary, meaning each year, your $100 sitting in the bank can reliably and consistently buy less and less things. As certain as your age is to increase, our fiat will decrease in value. How is this system of money sustainable?
If we come to the conclusion that our current monetary system is flawed and wrong, then anything that is different to ‘wrong’ should at least be given some thought.
Bitcoin has been in existence since 2009. You’ve had all this time. Luck has nothing to do with it.
Anyway…. I digress. Back to making your own luck.
In summary, it’s about priming yourself so that when you do find yourself in the right place, at the right time… you know to look up (or around).
Being lucky takes work.