How I Am Luckier Than most People
The Equation of Luck
The first person to say that was the philosopher, Seneca. I really like this idea, an equation to find something that feels random or horribly elusive.
I found this quote through an equally wise philosopher, from our time, Casey Niestat. I don’t remember where he said this, I’m sure it’s hidden deep in his massive library of daily vlogs. When I first heard this quote, I was fighting for my life to stay in college, my grades were a disaster, and if I didn’t get them up then I would be kindly asked to leave Purdue.
Throughout my struggles, I had lost all faith in my academic abilities. In my mind, if I was to pass some classes and get my grades up, it was gonna be due to a heaping spoonful of luck.
Hearing this equation gave me a map to find it, opportunities were all over the place, tests, homework assignments, and group projects. All are opportunities to get lucky. Preparation was the hard part. I would study like crazy but still do horribly on the tests. So, I broke down Casey’s equation even further.
What is Luck?
There are a lot of different definitions of luck out there. Some people believe in karma or universal balance. Some people believe that luck is an outlook on life. Lucky people are optimists and unlucky people are pessimists. For our purposes, I’m parsing luck out into two categories.
A) Infinite luck, no strings attached, luck that leads to unadulterated happiness
The type of luck that happy husbands refer to when they say, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world”, when referencing their wives.
EX: finding and marrying your soulmate, finding a job you love that loves you back, living a comfortable and happy life.
B) Finite luck, it stops, and at some point, your luck will run out, it serves no long-term purpose.
The type of luck that pessimists envy. The kind of luck that the “have-nots” blame the “haves” for having.
EX: Winning the Lottery, hitting a green light, getting lucky after a night out, a hot streak in blackjack
Preparation = Repetition + Knowledge
Repetition
Repetition is, in my head, the repeating of a task until it is mastered. This could be taking thirty practice exams until I’m so bored of it that it’s impossible to get scared during the real thing. It could be playing the first 3 chords to Kansas’s “Dust in the Wind” until my ears start bleeding. It’s boring and if done long enough, it makes you despise whatever it is you’re repeating.
Repetition is hard but without it you won’t be prepared to succeed when you find an opportunity. Repetition is where the real work is in the luck process. Nothing in these steps will be harder to complete than repetition. Swallow the frog first. Repetitions don’t necessarily have to be identical. I consider each of my articles to be a repetition that works on the same skill, even though the content of each is very different. It is the same as sending out a thousand resumes or flirting with a bunch of different people in the bar, all are reps.
Knowledge
Knowledge is easy to look at but hard to digest. In this article, for instance, I hope that you read it and realize that people who appear lucky, in reality, are just opportunistic and prepared. But you could also just read this article and forget about it, gaining nothing.
Knowledge is a deep understanding of an endeavor or concept. A deep understanding of information can come from combinations of reading it, writing it down, teaching it to someone else, and having someone guide you through it.
There have only been about 3 lectures that I have sat through where I walked away being able to say “I understand everything that was said and have no questions.” All the other times, I had others teach me in a new way until I had a firm grasp on the subject.
Without knowledge you have nothing to repeat. I wouldn’t be able to hate dust in the wind if I didn’t know the notes to practice in the first place. Preparation takes work and not the fun kind of work, it takes the “just one more” five more times kind of work. Lucky people aren’t lucky, they are well prepared.
Opportunity = movement + recognition
Movement
Nothing happens without movement, nothing comes to anyone who sits in their room waiting for the world to start spinning in the way they want. Opportunity comes to those who move. Get out there and make yourself known. Even powerball winners went out and bought a ticket.
You have to go out into the world, ask for help, and help where you can. Use the human element of your interactions to your advantage. Leave the world a little better than you found it each day. This can take many forms, sending emails, sending DM’s, calling up that random uncle that might know a person in the field you want to go into. Go out to the bar, call up an old friend, go write in a coffee shop.
Movement is any action other than sitting still. It helps if you are moving in some way toward what you want to get lucky with. Mental and physical movement is a key ingredient in the luck equation.
Recognition
The final step in having luck is recognizing opportunity. Opportunity is only a few shades less ambiguous than luck. If you can’t see it, then that’s as good as it not existing in the first place.
Ted Lasso has a quote I like, “Be curious, not judgmental.” Judgment kills opportunity. You have to be curious and open-minded to see if something will be able to benefit you.
You can ask questions of a potential opportunity to test its merit. “Is there a way for me to make a task more aligned with my long-term goals? How can I use the resources I already have to better serve the direction I’m headed? Sometimes the opportunities are obvious, a job posting or a blind date. Maybe a chance for success is well hidden, like a volunteer position at a nonprofit or being the wingman during an outing with friends. It may be something you don’t truly enjoy or gain anything from at first. Just consider it a repetition.
Opportunity is hard to define, finding opportunity is even harder. By making yourself known and meeting new people, showing them that your goal is to add value to the world, you can become an opportunity magnet.
Finite Luck Always Runs Out
It’s luck you have to pay for, maybe not in the way you would expect but the bill will always come. Just look at the lives of people who have won the lottery. It’s an incredibly “lucky” win, but most winners die young and in financial ruin. The guy who never gets pulled over for speeding thinks he’s untouchable until he gets a massive ticket just the same. In the end, it always runs out.
Preparation + Opportunity = Luck
I believe this equation can lead you to any kind of luck you need. Want to go viral? Know your audience, upload as much as possible, learn from your mistakes, and recognize growth (not speaking from experience). Want to meet your soulmate? Understand what you want in a partner as well as your strengths and faults, go out with people, make mistakes, try and fail, and learn as much as you can. Realize when you have found the perfect person and the grass can’t get any greener (speaking from experience).
You also have to recognize a slower form of luck, growth. Sometimes luck doesn’t strike like lightning. Sometimes, it’s a slow climb to your goals. If you don’t stop and smell the roses, you could miss it.
Luck is a strange and ambiguous concept. We can’t rely on it for everything but using this outlook will increase your chances of striking gold in any endeavor.
