Turns Out 'Lucky People' Just Do These 9 Simple Things Differently
Luck isn't magic. It's mindset.
Darren Baker | Canva I think luck plays a significant role in the life of any successful person. Hard work is important, but a little good fortune goes a long way in being successful. Studies indicate that luck is less about random chance and more about how individuals position themselves to capitalize on opportunities.
It seems mystical and magical, but the illusion of pure random luck dissipates once you understand how to create good luck for yourself. Getting lucky is just like anything else in life: there are ways to increase the odds in your favor. Improving your luck isn't magical.
Before I give you my definition of luck, let me warn you: it’s probably going to differ from whatever is in Webster’s dictionary. If you’re satisfied with your level of luck, go ahead and read theirs instead. My definition of luck:
- Let “n” be an intended or predicted outcome.
- Let "k" be any number of events that occur because of “n."
- The unintended n+k order of effects of an action is luck.
I’m also a slight math nerd, but you don’t need to be a numbers person to understand or apply this groundbreaking formula for getting luckier.
Lucky people do these nine simple things differently:
1. They have goals
Trying to accomplish something makes it more likely you'll get lucky by at least a factor of 10. Okay, I just made that number up, but you need to take action to create your luck. You need an initial event to ripple the pond of life so that it sends the waves of luck reverberating around you.
I’ll put this point another way: you can’t win if you don’t play. You can't get lucky sitting on the sidelines.
When someone complains about their bad luck, I know they’re living without purpose. These are the people who go through the motions of life. Coincidentally, they have the worst luck.
When you take action toward a goal, you automatically do two important things to improve your luck: you increase your number of constructive decisions and you decrease your number of destructive decisions.
When it comes to getting lucky, not doing things that take you off track is just as important as staying on track.
2. They're always ready to take advantage of opportunities
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Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Once you select a goal, you must work relentlessly on achieving it. This ensures that you are ready whenever you get an opportunity to advance on it.
Imagine being a writer, waiting for your big break. You meet an agent who has a great opportunity for you if you have a finished manuscript. You don't have one.
Meeting this agent may be a random encounter. It may be a result of you putting the first principle into action. Regardless, you’ve wasted an opportunity because you weren’t prepared.
Preparation is a result of dedication to your craft. By constantly improving, you will always be as ready as you can be for any opportunity.
3. They take more chances
There is a great book I recommend called Hustle, written by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler. In the book, they compare getting lucky to getting up at bat in baseball. The level of skill or preparation you have is your batting average.
If your batting average is .400 in major league baseball, apparently this is excellent (please forgive me, baseball fans — I don’t know the game well at all). This means that if you got up to bat 10 times, you’d hit the ball 4 times.
We don’t know which of those 4 hits will be home runs or base hits. You still have to swing to make something happen. Your "batting average" is — more or less — fixed. Since you’ve maxed out on skill and preparation, the only way to get more opportunities is to swing more often. Instead of 10 times, get up to bat 100 times.
There’s a much greater chance that one of the 40 hits will be a home run compared to just the four. The luckiest people are always looking for a way to show off what they can do.
Having skills is one thing, but marketing and selling them is another. You must find every single way you can to display who you are and what you can do.
Lucky people are more likely to be open to new experiences and opportunities, and they are adept at creating good fortune by networking, adopting a relaxed attitude, and being receptive to unexpected events. A study by the University of South Florida explained that they are also more likely to see potential in situations others might overlook.
4. They help people when it costs little or nothing to do so
We do things without awareness of how far, in time or space, our actions will reach. While we don’t know what they’re going to affect, we know there will be reactions along the way. In many ways, this is just another phrasing of the concept of luck that I gave earlier.
The best way to take advantage of this is to protect yourself from the consequences of abusing it. You don’t have to bend over backward to help people. However, if it only costs you a small amount of time/money to make a disproportionately large difference, do it.
You never know when or how this person may be in a position to help you. It should also go without saying that kicking people while they’re down is completely unacceptable.
Helping others makes you luckier, but you also feel like a good person. Seriously, the reward for helping is the feeling of being helpful.
An unintended benefit (the “k” in the “n+k” formula) is that it makes people more likely to help you. It also makes it less likely that they will try to set you back.
5. They're likable
No one is saying to be a brown-noser, but don't underestimate the power of likeability. If you know how to make people like you, it’s amazing how much luck you'll have and the trouble you'll avoid.
When people like you, they want you to like them. My experience has been that no one is immune to this rule of human interaction. To gain your approval, they will present you with more opportunities and prevent others from taking yours.
Not only will you get more tries at bat, but a benefit of likability is also that it “shortens the field." People are more likely to make exceptions, give you bonus points, or help you succeed despite yourself.
6. They take advantage of life by using leverage
When you don’t have anything to your name, you still have your name. Make sure it’s worth something. In some circles, your reputation is the only currency accepted.
This is an excellent base for building any number of skills. When you have a solid reputation, you will get opportunities to be around people. With this exposure, you can build networks and build your value in a variety of ways.
If you’re only good at one thing, don’t worry about it. This is what you will use to leverage your money and time.
The better you are at your skill, the more ways you can leverage it into money and manpower. People never think of this as a way to get lucky, but it always pays off. When you’re good at something, you can take advantage of trade and acquire resources. Employment is nothing more than an exchange of skills or time for money.
Research suggests that creating and seizing opportunities plays a significant role in experiencing what we perceive as luck. While some events might seem random, proactive individuals are more likely to notice and capitalize on opportunities, increasing their likelihood of positive outcomes.
7. They take calculated risks
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The safest path is the surest path. It’s the one most people go down — and it’s the reason most people, almost by definition, aren’t lucky.
This is because most people do not expose themselves to volatile events. They prefer a life with little chance to mess up but with little chance to excel as well.
Lucky people always take risks. Unlucky people don't.
One of the things that I love about entrepreneurship is the thrill of betting on myself and my abilities. Some people feel it's too risky to live like this, but taking calculated risks is a defining trait of entrepreneurs. We make calculated moves, but we still don't have a guaranteed positive outcome. We do things that most people shy away from, so we end up with chances that most people never get.
This isn’t doing what’s difficult so much as it’s doing something where there's a chance you can lose big. A basic example is someone who starts a business. It’s safer and easier to get a job, but there is also less reward (with less freedom, as well). To increase your luck, learn to take a healthy amount of risk.
8. They nurture their relationships
At the end of the day, people are the most important thing. It’s important to be likable with the public, but your friends require a higher degree of authenticity.
They’ll be there with you through thick and thin, and they want to see you win. This is, of course, assuming you pick the right friends. If you do, they will come through for you when you need it and are least expecting it.
9. They choose their perspective
There is an old saying that I love: “Nothing is either good or bad, only thinking makes it so.” Another one I also think is appropriate for the topic of luck is: “Life is not what happens to you, but how you react to it.”
How you perceive events dictates your reaction to them. Everything that happens to you is an opportunity. A lot of people can't see obstacles as opportunities, and this is a tremendous advantage for you.
I knew a guy who got clean only after he did a long stretch in prison. As long as you aren’t dead, there is a way to use the situation to make something great happen.
I’m aware that this step is a bit of a cheat code. It’s taking any event and seeing it as good rather than what it is. Well, it’s all relative and subjective.
A poor kid in Detroit doesn’t realize that he’s still in the top 10% of wealth in the world. A middle-class family thinks falling behind on the mortgage is a tragedy.
Lucky individuals tend to be more optimistic, open-minded, and intuitive, and they are better at spotting opportunities and viewing setbacks as temporary rather than permanent. A 2023 study indicated that luck is not solely a matter of chance but also a product of how we interpret events and react to circumstances.
Gratitude and perspective are the keys to feeling lucky. Not only that, but a positive mind is one better able to solve problems.
If you do these things, your luck will dramatically increase. You may even find a few quarters on your way back from making the world a better place.
Ed Latimore is a retired American professional boxer, influencer, and best-selling author. His work focuses on self-improvement and a practical approach to stoic philosophy.
