MAKE THE MOST LUCK OUT OF YOUR CAREER AND LIFE

Some people are luckier than others.

How many of you believe this? Why do you believe it? Are you one of the lucky ones? Or does luck seem to pass you by? And just what is luck, anyhow?

Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career TFF

Have you ever noticed that unplanned events — chance occurrences — more often determine your life and career choices than all the careful planning you do? A chance meeting, a broken appointment, a spontaneous vacation trip, a “fill-in” job, a newly discovered hobby — these are the kinds of experiences — happenstances — that lead to unexpected life directions and career choices.



Make the most of unplanned events. We are constantly bombarded by the unexpected. Most of the time, we dodge unplanned events in order to return to our normal lives. We fear the spontaneous. But if you can relax, open your mind, and roll with the unexpected, new opportunities will unfold.

Share your interests and experiences with people you meet. You don’t need to force your story on others. But learn to strike up conversations with people you meet in daily life. Ask them about their lives. They’ll ask you about yours. As Keith Ferrazzi notes in Never Eat Alone, this is a great way to form connections you might otherwise miss. It’s a great way to turn a random encounter into a possible “lucky break”. (Sometimes you will be a source of luck for the people you meet, just as they will sometimes be a source of luck for you.)

Always keep your options open. Goals are good. But single-minded devotion to a goal can often blind one to other opportunities. It’s also a mistake to cling to a path you hate out of a sense of obligation. If you enter law school and discover you hate it, quit. Don’t endure years of misery because you feel it’s expected of you. “Refuse to serve a life sentence of misery,” the authors write. You have more options than you think. But you may need to open your eyes to see them.

Try it — even without knowing the outcome. Two of the best ways to “be lucky” are to be willing to take calculated risks and to embrace unexpected opportunities. Try new things. Go new places. Don’t just do the things for which you know the eventual outcome. I’ve learned that the best way for me to grow as a person is to do something completely outside my comfort zone. Good things happen when I do.