The Game of Luck: A Guide To Become Luckier In Business and In Life

One factor commonly overlooked in life is luck.

Luck determines which opportunities come in your way. When I started freelancing, I had no credentials nor work experience. Nonetheless, a client still hired me, which opened opportunities for more clients; that’s luck. When all things are said and done, luck is the line between success and failure. Certain circumstances will either push you up or bring you down.

Some would argue that it is unfair, and it is.

Luckily, you can beat it.

What is luck, and how do you beat it?

Luck is said to be this mysterious force that attracts good opportunities.

It is chance, a probability of coming across an opportunity. Finding a coin on the ground, for example, is luck. Coming across a coin is unlikely, so if you happen to see one on the ground, that’s lucky.

But what if you actively look for coins on the ground? The more you look, the more likely you’ll find a coin.

This is the first strategy:

Expose yourself to opportunities

If you keep on the lookout for a coin, you will increase your chances of finding one.

When we put ourselves out there, naturally, we will find more opportunities. People consider me lucky because at age 15 I’ve already established a career on Fiverr. I was, but the opportunity became more likely only because I put myself out there.

Because I tried and I tried finding a source of income, I managed to find one. It is uncommon for a 15 year old to have such an opportunity, but it became more likely when I pursued it.

Making way for good opportunities will make you “luckier.”

You can apply this strategy anywhere in your life.

If you want to get into a good school, study more and seek out opportunities that you can put on your application. If you want to get a good job, make it more likely by accomplishing things you can put into your resume.

What about winning the lottery for money? I can buy more lottery tickets and more frequently, right? Well, yes, it would make it more likely, but don’t.

This is where the second strategy comes in:

Know when and where to allocate your efforts

If you attempt our strategy to win the lottery, you’ll still most likely lose.

The thing about trying to beat luck is sometimes you just can’t. When I first started freelancing, I made a gig for proofreading essays. Later on, I realized that not many people look for this service. I started focusing more on writing for blogs and websites. That change helped me grow my business exponentially.

Instead of forcing what is unlikely, focus on what is likely.

Start to identify areas in your life where you might be wasting your potential, and change your ways.

But what if wherever you look in life, there just seems to be a lot of “unluckiness?”

This is where the third strategy comes in:

Shift your perspective

When all things are said and done, it all comes down to your outlook in life.

If you are more optimistic about life, you will find more things lucky, than if you didn’t. This goes according to the findings of Matthew David Smith’s research entitled “Perception of One’s Own Luck:”

Self-perceived lucky people interpret events more positively (i.e., as more lucky) than do self-perceived unlucky people.

If you want to be luckier, then just look around you and appreciate what you have. Remind yourself that what you have is not something everybody has. Remind yourself that certain opportunities may not be the best for you, but it is better than the rest.

Love yourself and your circumstances more.

What can we take from this?

Simple. Open yourself to likely opportunities, and have a better outlook on life.

By exposing ourselves to opportunities, we increase our chances of success. By choosing which opportunities are best, we increase our chances even more. When all things are said and done, how we look at it dictates whether it is lucky or not.

To put it simply: do what you can, choose the best action, and be happy.