Crafting Your Own Luck: The Power of Being Your Best Self Every Day
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” -Thomas Jefferson
I have never given the concept of luck much thought other than basic scenarios like winning the lottery or being at the right place at the right time. But what if there is more to it than that? Can we create our own luck? Or is it just random?
These were some of the questions that intrigued me after listening to the “How to Get Rich”-episode on Naval Ravikants podcast which I highly recommend. Despite its typical clickbait-y title, this podcast episode is the real deal and delves into many very interesting topics that I’m sure I will write blog posts on later on. The episode is based on a series of tweets (a tweetstorm) originally called How To Get Rich (without getting lucky). Personally I digested the episode during several long walks in the summer sun 👌🏻☀️
In this episode, Naval Ravikant discusses the idea that getting wealthy is more about skill and mindset than pure luck:
A lot of people think making money is about luck. It’s not. It’s about becoming the kind of person that makes money. I like to think that if I lost all my money and if you drop me on a random street in any English-speaking country, within 5, 10 years I’d be wealthy again. Because it’s a skill set that I’ve developed and I think anyone can develop.
I think that for most of the goals I set for myself, short term and life goals it would be very nice to not have to rely on luck in order to reach those goals. Whether your goal is getting promoted, getting wealthy, learning a new language or being a better parent, you want to do everything you can to reach those goals and not leave it to chance.
To use an example inspired by the podcast:
Let’s say your goal is to get promoted. In 1000 parallel universes you want to get promoted in 999 of them. You don’t want to get promoted in the 50 of them where you got lucky. You want to get promoted because you are the best candidate for the job.
Let’s dive into the four types of luck (first described in this book) and how I use it to try to remove luck from the equation.
🍀 Blind luck. This is luck that is completely random and there is nothing we can do about it 🤷🏻
- Where you were born
- How wealthy your parents are
- Winning the lottery
🍀 Luck from hard work. Consistency, hard work and dedication. Make sure you excel in your role, be the best version of yourself every day, take on additional responsibility and stay positive. Do everything you can to increase the likelihood that your efforts will be recognized and rewarded.
🍀 Seeing luck. If you are very skilled in something you will gain awareness for luck or become better at spotting luck. You will probably sense an opportunity before most others. This can also be “being at the right place at the right time”. But if you have this 6th sense for your field of expertise you might be able to recognize and grab the opportunity before others do.
These opportunities do not have to be something big, maybe you see room for improvement at work. Something that nobody recognizes and never does anything about. Relentlessly look for these opportunities, grab them and see where they lead you.
🍀 Making your own luck. The 4th type of luck is you being the best possible version of yourself and doing everything you can to make your own luck, every day. While luck number two is more about hard work, this is more about creating opportunities for yourself by being as proactive as you possibly can.
- Connect with new people every day
- Be open to new perspectives
- Be the best version of yourself every day
- Take initiative
- Read books
- Be positive
- Help and empower others
- Work on self-improvement
- Be proactive: Act on opportunities instead of reacting to them
- Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone
- ..and 150+ other things I could have put on this list
By creating numerous opportunities, you increase your chances of generating your own luck.
For me, luck type number four is the best way to look at life in general. And although it is sometimes very hard to get out of my comfort zone I try to focus on the items listed. I strongly believe in compounding interest—that small, consistent efforts will lead to significant opportunities down the road. 🚀