A powerful lesson on luck that everyone needs to hear:
In 2003, Dr. Richard Wiseman published a book entitled The Luck Factor, in which he explored why some people seem to consistently “get lucky” while others struggle with bad luck their whole lives.
Dr. Wiseman gathered participants for a series of simple experiments.
He took out ads requesting participants for a study on luck — specifically, the ads asked for people who considered themselves very lucky or very unlucky.
In one experiment, each participant was given a newspaper and asked to count the number of photographs inside it.
The unlucky group averaged 2 minutes to complete the exercise, while the lucky group averaged mere seconds.
What happened?
Well, on page 2 of the newspaper, there was an enormous bold font print that read, “Stop counting, there are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”
At the halfway mark, there was another message that read, “Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.”
The self-identified lucky people had seen the writing, stopped, and responded accordingly to end the timer (or collect the money).
The self-identified unlucky people, on the other hand, had missed it (or mistrusted it) and taken far longer to count.
This finding grew into a consistent theme across the body of research:
The lucky people came across “chance” opportunities, while the unlucky people seemed to miss them. Both groups had equal access to these opportunities, but the lucky group saw what the unlucky group tended to miss.
There’s a concept referred to as “luck surface area” .
The idea is that each of us has a surface area on which lucky events can strike.
There are a few baseline factors out of our control:
• Where you are born
• Who you are born to
• “Acts of God”
Beyond these, the size of our luck surface area is within our control.
In Dr. Wiseman’s study, the lucky people seemed to understand this:
• They noted that they often took alternate routes to and from work so that they would meet new people and see new things.
• They talked about unique strategies for talking to different groups of people at parties.
• They bounced back from seemingly negative encounters and maintained a positive outlook for the future.
The luckiest people have engineered an enormous luck surface area.
Expand yours in two ways:
1. Remove Anti-Luck: Anti-luck includes all the actions, behaviors, and people that shrink your luck surface area. Pessimism and “blinders” are two common sources of anti-luck. People who tell you to be realistic are another common source.
2. Add Pro-Luck: Pro-luck includes all the actions, behaviors, and people that expand your luck surface area. Getting out and meeting new people, sharing your thoughts and ideas publicly, and sending more cold emails and DMs are all common sources of pro-luck. People who encourage you to think bigger are another common source.
