Make your own luck!
Luck can make or break a career, but those who
make their own luck can make their careers shine. Assess where you
stand in the lucky-person parade.
1. Being lucky is a way of
looking at the world.
You can look back on your life and see the luck in it or see the
failure. But all good interviewers know that past performance is
the best indicator of future performance. They want to know about
your successes, so why doom yourself from the start? View yourself
as having led a charmed life and you will find yourself becoming
the recipient of more lucky charms. Optimists know this intuitively.
Our lives unfold the way we see them. If you expect bad things to
happen, they will. But if you expect good luck, it likely will come
your way.
2. Know what luck looks like
The luckiest people knock on the door of opportunity and it opens.
Throughout your life, though, you'll knock on hundreds of these
opportunity doors. Sure, this is a figurative statement, but put
on your metaphorical walking shoes.
One caveat: You must be clear on what you want for
this rule to work. Doors will open to you constantly, and unless
you know what you want, you won't know if you have been lucky enough
to get it.
To be a lucky person in this world you must have a
vision of your life. Otherwise you will walk through any door. Whims,
aimlessness and fate will direct your life.
3. Entourages make opportunities
for luck
You'll find more four-leaf clovers if everyone is hunting them for
you than if you're searching alone. So invest in yourself by hiring
people to help you create luck. An assistant at work, a cleaning
person at home -- whatever you need to free up clover-hunting time.
Examine every task you do that does not, in some way, allow you
to knock on doors that might open to big-time luck. Delegate the
luckless work so you can concentrate on your vision. Consider using
the money you might spend on movies or lattes to pay an assistant.
And every entourage should include trusted advisers and a mentor
who will steer you to the good clover patches. Don't go picking
without one.
4. Surround yourself with
lucky people.
Successful people have successful friends. There is, of course,
the chicken and egg question. For example, did Sam Waksal befriend
Martha Stewart because she was rich and famous or because he liked
her? You and I will never know, but they did hang out together --
along with all their other rich, successful friends (whether either
is truly lucky is debatable and probably depends on your personal
value system). And that's where the odds come in. Don't worry about
why or when lucky people find each other. Just play the odds, and
make sure you are hanging out with lucky people now.
5. Don't tell other people
they were lucky
We all want to believe that we have accomplished some great feat
through personal skill and ability -- not luck. If you say it was
because of luck, then it seems as though we had nothing to do with
making something happen. So don't tell someone who's just achieved
an important goal that they are lucky. Maybe they are, but you should
focus on the skill they used to make their luck. Besides, showing
respect and admiration for others -- not to mention hanging around
with a winner -- makes you look good.
If you hate your acquaintance for being lucky, stifle
that feeling until you get home and can curse and scream until you
feel better. But remember that no one seems very lucky while jealously
screaming about his or her neighbor. And don't forget Rule No. 4.
Stop screaming and go hang out with this person.
-- Posted: March 15, 2004
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