Do You Feel Lucky (*Punk)?
When I was growing up, I was told that getting pooped on by a bird is considered good luck and seeing a black cat cross a road is bad luck…
What if you experience both of these things at the same time? Do they cancel each other out? Seems a bit weird…
On a serious note, there are a lot of notions about luck out there, but the most common seems to be that some people just have it, while others don’t — and it’s quite random who gets the blessing and who doesn’t.
For example, someone who’s born into an affluent family and has their education taken care of might be considered lucky, while someone else born into absolute poverty and dysfunctional family is considered unlucky. That’s what Dr. James Austin described as “Blind Luck” in a book entitled Chase, Chance, & Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty.
That’s what we most often think about when we think about luck.
But, there is more to luck than just pure randomness…
In his book, Austin proposed that there are 4 types of luck:
01. Blind Luck: This type of luck is completely impersonal and arrives unexpectedly, requiring no effort on your part. Example of a blind good luck would be being into a loving and affluent family in a peaceful country or buying bitcoin in 2010 and then forgetting about it for 10 years.
An example of blind bad luck would be being born into a warzone or getting hit by lightning (obviously if you were pole jumping while you got it then you had it coming).
02. Luck From Motion: This type of luck favors those who are actively engaged in various activities and experiments, increasing the chances of stumbling upon lucky breaks. This type of luck you can create by meeting new people, putting your work out there and trying out new things.
An example of this luck could be writing a blog for years, which leads to sponsorships and speaking engagements. Or volunteering at a local dog shelter, where you meet someone you connect with and eventually marry.
03. Luck From Awareness: This type of luck involves being thoroughly prepared to recognize and seize opportunities when they arise. Luck in preparation rewards those who have developed the judgment to make informed decisions based on their deep understanding of their field or industry (often though experience and past failures). As with luck from motion, this type of luck you can influence. You just need to be willing to fail more!
A classic example for this would be the management of Netflix. When they started, they were a DVD rental business. But with time they recognized that streaming was the future, so they pivoted their core business (otherwise they would have gone the same route as “Blockbusters” — straight to bankruptcy).
04. Luck From Uniqueness: Finally, we have the luck that gravitates toward you because of the kind of person you are. This type of luck is attracted to people who have built a strong personal brand and reputation over time, making them the go-to person for specific opportunities that align with their expertise and character. This type of luck you can influence.
An example of this would Steve Wozniak meeting Steve Jobs through a mutual friend, Bill Fernandez. Wozniak later told that:
“We first met in 1971 during my college years, while he was in high school. A friend said, ‘you should meet Steve Jobs because he likes electronics, and he also plays pranks.’ So he introduced us.”
Had they not met, would there be Apple today? Who knows…
What To Do When You Don’t Feel Lucky?
We all feel out of luck sometimes — sometimes things just are not going your way. That’s normal part of being a human. But sometimes it can feel like you’re someone who attracts bad luck…
That’s when you need a shift in your mindset. There’s several ways you can do this:
- Focus on the kind of luck you can influence. As you read from the previous section, only the first kind of luck the “blind luck” is something that just happens. The rest are something you can control (or at least influence). Fretting about how unlucky you are compared to others will get you nowhere.
- Be okay with being unlucky. Show yourself some compassion and accept that it happens to be an unlucky time for you. Notice I say “unlucky time” not “I’m unlucky”. There’s crucial difference. You don’t want to internalize that being unlucky is somehow part of who you are. That will just throw you into a negativity loop of self-fulfilling prophecies.
- Escape your comfort zone and take action. You’re not going to create luck for yourself by sitting at home watching TV and eating chips. You have to take action. What actions? Anything really. Meet up with colleagues, go for a walk, start building that website, start writing that article (note to self…) Whatever is necessary to build momentum.
What’s the takeaway here? Try to pay attention to what people around you think of luck. I bet you’ll find is that those who seem stuck, believe that luck is just something that happens to me. And those who you admire are people who go out and make their own luck.
Be the latter one!
