“I’d rather be lucky than good!” My dad and I say this routinely on the golf course. Whether it’s after a miss hit shot magically ends up on the green or a wayward shot strikes a tree and bounces back into the fairway, it’s a common utterance.
In reality, it isn’t a zero sum game. One might amend this self deprecating adage with “I’d rather be lucky AND good.” This is especially relevant in our careers.
Over the past weeks, luck has presented itself in numerous ways. Luck is such a large topic that I cannot possibly tackle its breath in this post. What I can do is present some of the lucky situations that have transpired, discuss the philosophy of luck in careers, and offer up some practical motivation and perspective.
Defining Luck
My parents visited us in Melbourne last week. They were delayed two days at the outset of their trip due to weather and an absent plane. Plus, my dad didn’t get his bag.
On the heels of this misfortune, we started discussing luck while we drove around South Victoria with my daughters. We quickly went beyond the rudimentary of good luck and bad. We discussed circumstantial luck, economic luck, racial luck, national luck. The list was seemingly endless and difficult to define. We gave up.
I’m not here to tackle national or racial luck. I know my nationality, my skin color, and my upbringing affords me a pre-filled tank of luck that many will never be afforded.
I am here to discuss how you can help increase your own luck in life and career, regardless of your starting point.
Inspiration for Luck
Beyond my parents aviation misfortunes, there were two other recent events that propelled my thinking on luck.
First, we luckily saw a pair of Southern Right Whales when we were in Bicheno, Tasmania. My wife saw a mom and calf gliding cooly through the Tasman Sea a mere 100 meters offshore.
We weren’t looking for whales. We were at the beach to see the Bicheno Blowhole. Think Old Faithful by the sea. As we left the parking lot, something dark and bigger than a dolphin breached the surface. My wife said, “I think I just saw a whale.”
“Bollocks!” I thought. I normally have the more keen observational powers. Plus, her view was obstructed by Tasmanian evergreens. How could she have seen a whale? Amidst the my disbelief, I stopped the car. Sure enough, there they were! Two whales cruising near the bay! We felt incredibly lucky to see them so close to shore.
Second, I magically found my lost credit card at a coffee shop after dropping it in the street hours earlier on my way to run the Run Melbourne Half Marathon. I sheepishly told my wife that I couldn’t find it and hoped it was in our apartment. It wasn’t. She was peeved. It meant we’d have to cancel the card.
Yet, I didn’t accept this bad luck. I took action, even though the possibilities of finding the card were slim. I retraced my pre-dawn steps to the tram station, the last place I remembered having it. I looked high and low. No luck. The card was likely gone.
Then, I decided to check coffee shops. Maybe some good samaritan dropped it off. I was resigned to the fact that the card was gone. But, it wasn’t! It was magically sitting on the counter at the first shop I visited. Neither my wife nor I could believe it. How fortunate!
Luck Helps Your Career
We all are lucky. Some are definitely more lucky than others. If you are one of the fortunate ones and think luck hasn’t helped you, I would encourage you to reassess that judgement. Even the most successful of us likely benefit from good fortune in some way. Accepting the fact that luck partially propels your success does not mean you are an imposter or unworthy of your lofty role.
Hard work is critical to success. Yet, it’s only part of the equation. Seneca said,
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
The Economist columnist Bartleby furthers the idea that luck influences careers:
“The early way-stations in a career are often marked by chance: a particularly encouraging boss, say, or an assignment that leads you off in an unexpected but defining direction. Luck can affect the pathways of the most rational-minded professions.”
I would go further. Luck plays a critical role throughout our careers, regardless of the stage. Yet, career luck isn’t just some passive force we cannot influence. Rather, you can take specific actions to increase your opportunities to be lucky, to have a more adventurous career.
How to Increase Your Luck
If luck plays a big role in our careers, you might ask, “How can I improve my career luck?”
It’s a delicate formula that includes both active and passive elements. You must take action, work hard, and share your pursuits. You must also be able to accept when you are riding the wave of good luck.
Entrepreneur Jason Roberts coined the idea the “surface area of luck” over a decade ago. The idea is simple. It requires one to do and to tell. To Jason, the more you do something you are passionate about and tell people about it, the higher chances you have for good fortune.
I’d go a little further. To me, there are some key doing and telling behaviors that are key to increasingly your luck. There isn’t an exact formula to this. It’s an art.
Get Outside
First, the lucky don’t stay at their desks. They don’t keep their head down all the time. They get out and connect. At Gallo Winery, executives preached being with customers as much as possible. The more you were with your customers the less your competitors are. This theoretically increases your chances of good fortune.
The same applies to career. If you are out interacting with people at trade shows, networking events, and more, you increase your chances of random opportunities presenting themselves. Resist the urge to stay locked up in your work and life cages.
Be Bold
Second, the lucky do things that are scary. They recognize fear and do something anyway. We are in Australia because my wife merely suggested that the company should allow her to do an extended business trip to Australia.
At first, it felt too bold, borderline crazy to ask. Then, she did. To our surprise, the company said yes! How often are you afraid to make the bold ask? You think the answer will be no or you’ll be judged as unreasonable. When you think this way, remember the line from the famed Roman poet Virgil, “Fortune favors the bold.”
Accept Guidance
Third, the lucky know they can’t do it alone. We all need helpers. When someone makes an unexpected ask or makes a suggestion, we should at least listen. These helpers see things we cannot. They see other paths and possibilities that are within our grasp. They propel us to additional opportunities to do and to tell.
Plus, when we accept guidance, we recognize that we can’t do everything alone. We create stronger bonds. We increase the number of higher quality relationships. This in turn can lead to you being more top of mind for “lucky” opportunities.
Be Helpful
Fourth, the lucky are generous. Remember, it’s not all about you. We’re all part of a complex human community. If you focus solely on your own problems and seek to extract maximum value you are a tax on the system. They lucky know this. They invest back into the human system.
Whether you call this “Karma” or “The Golden Rule”, it applies. When you help others out they are more likely to help you in return. You don’t have to approach this as a quid pro quo. Rather, just do things now and again not expecting anything in return.
Shake Up Your Routine
Fifth, the lucky know that we need to try something different from time to time. Much of luck is about expanding your possibilities pool. Why do you think diversification is a thing in stock investing? The more investments you place in a variety of sources allows you to take advantage of the random probability of success.
When you stay in the same lane all the time, you only expose yourself to your known world. We saw the Souther Right Wales because we shook up our normal routine. I’m a morning person. My wife is not. Plus, getting kids up and moving is rough most of the time. That morning, we got up earlier to get a better light for pictures. If we hadn’t changed things up, we wouldn’t have had the good fortune of seeing the magical creatures.
Luck Is About Perspective
Sometimes luck is merely about mindset, too. While we followed the whales along the shoreline, trying to maximize our time with the beautiful beasts, I saw two fisherman in a dingy. Some people may have looked at the fisherman and thought, “How unlucky to have to get up so early every morning to make a meager living in a tin boat.” I didn’t.
The whales breeched the surface merely meters from their boat. In that moment I thought, “How lucky are they? They are soooo lucky to be fisherman living in this wonderful Tasman world.” This was the only time I’d ever seen a whale. Most people have to pay to be taken miles from shore for the off chance of seeing a whale. How many times have they seen these creatures only feet from them simply while doing their job? Dozens? Hundreds? I couldn’t help but feel envy and gratitude simultaneously.
I was lucky to be visiting “Down Under”, to see the mother and calf. The fisherman were lucky to live here. Part of luck is your perspective. It’s about knowing the rare moments of luck you experience and increasing their odds. It’s also about recognizing the ways you are consistently lucky with gratitude.
Thanks for reading!
Paul G. Fisher
Bonus Reading on Luck
I’ve challenged myself to expand my horizons on our Aussie adventure. Reading Aussie books has been one of my main tools.
I visited a book store immediately after arriving in Melbourne to pick up some local books. The book store attendant emphatically recommended Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton, an iconic Aussie novelist.
The book is fabulous! It’s a character driven novel that exemplifies why fiction can teach you as much or more than non-fiction about life and career.
It’s a fictional story about two families, the Pickles and the Lambs, that come together after grave misfortune. Over twenty-years they grow inseparable and enjoy life’s beauty both via good and bad events. Luck plays a central theme in the book.
Sam, the Pickle’s family patriarch, believes luck guides your life and you cannot control it. He calls it the “Shifty Shadow.” To Sam, we are all passengers riding the wave of luck. When he loses his hand in an accident, it’s bad. When he makes tons of money at the races, it’s good.
By contrast, the Lambs show a different take on luck. They are drivers on the luck express. They make their own luck via hard work. They develop a successful general store and ice cream shop. They exemplify Jason Roberts’s formula on luck: Luck = Doing x Telling.