Just a few months ago, I wrote about how somebodys are nobodys that got lucky, musing on the cult of fame and trying to put a person’s status into question as a reason to fawn over him/her. I got back a great reaction (many people didn’t like the idea of ‘luck’). So yesterday, when perusing through some links, I found an article that summarizes an actual scientific study of lucky vs. non-lucky people. It turns out that there IS such thing as lucky people, but it’s not some sort of mystical fate playing its hand at work after all. Instead, ‘lucky people’ are those who are really observant and open to opportunities.
Bingo. From the article:
“And so it is with luck – unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”
I just about fell out of my chair reading this as it feeds right into the whole ‘embrace the chaos’ mantra I’ve been chanting for the past 4 years of my life (ever since I began getting ‘luckier’). The researcher, Richard Wiseman is a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, goes on to highlight four main characteristics of lucky people:
- Lucky people are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities;
- Lucky people make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition;
- Lucky people create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations; and
- Lucky people adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
This is fascinating, but unsurprising to me. I’ve read other research that says that positive ‘Pollyanna’ type people go much further in the world. I also know from personal experience that focusing on negative bits tends to create more negative outcomes while keeping my spirits up sails me through rough patches and leads to new and awesome opportunities. I’ve also observed many people who seem to attract negative drama and, therefore, never move forward. These people often refer to themselves as ‘unlucky’. No coincidence.
I’m definitely interested in picking up Wiseman’s book, The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles (another coincidence? 
) to find out how he backs up his theories with experiments. A couple of further observations I loved from the article:
- Lucky people follow their ‘gut’ feeling rather than the rational side of a choice.
- Unlucky people stick to a routine – same route, same people at parties, etc – they don’t like to venture outside of their comfort zone.
- No matter what misfortune occurs to a lucky person, he/she will tend to look on the bright side of things. (“broke my leg? heh. no problem! at least it wasn’t my neck!”)
I guess it’s true that you make your own luck. I know that ever since I’ve begun pushing myself out of my comfort zone, my luck has changed. Or rather, that I changed my luck.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:09 am
Totally agree Tara. I even wrote a post about that last week! The only difference, it was aimed at entrepreneurs
http://alaintheriault.com/startupcoaching/2009/10/entrepreneurs-make-your-own-luck/
But still, it’s a funny coincidence. Thanks for the link to Wiseman’s book, it will be in my wish list
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
Interesting post. I believe you create your own luck by taking risks…calculated ones of course.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 am
I agree with Werner. I grew up with the wrestling business of the 1990s and there was a wrestler that made a T-Shirt that said F*ck fear, drink beer (Sorry for the swear words, but that’s literally what the t-shirt said). What this has to do is that Lucky people go without expectations and without fear of not finding anything positive. When you go with out expecting something you have a much broader look, rather than the selective look, like when you go out to find a partner you tend to disqualify everyone that is not a potential partner but that could be a potential friend.
So I try and follow that wrestling shirt motto minus the Beer Part. Since following your blog and book I also try to embrace the chaos and let me tell you I’ve got luckier too.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
One of my favorite Benjamin Franklin quotes is “The harder I work, the luckier I get”
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Art is like this. Great artists bust out stuff that doesn’t make any sense, that falls flat on its face…or becomes inspiration to millions.
Picasso, Da Vinci, Warhol and other great artists were very prolific – but are only known for a handful of their works. Was it luck, or were they just daring enough to risk over and over again?
Thanks so much for this!
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:11 am
Yes, indeed. I love this book.
As I remember, the author goes even further on that ability to see a silver lining. Not only saying “It could have been worse” but “Wow I’m glad that happened!”. He mentions a man who had an accident –and met his future bride because she was his nurse at the hospital.
Now that’s a real silver lining! Not only getting through misfortune bravely, but learning how to genuinely see it as a wonderful event to be grateful for. That gives us power we can really *use* in our lives.
A book I love that dovetails with this point is “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. At first glance it may look unrelated to this subject. But I found it a great guide on *how* to unhook from the pain of misfortune and find true peace in it. His work is with people dealing with serious physical pain, but it’s applicable across the board.
So often that kind of advice sounds like empty, pious platitudes. “Yeh right. I’m the one in pain here. You gotta be kidding.”
Kabat-Zinn shows us how to actually *do* it. Once we do that, then we can see the blessing hidden in the misfortune. It helped me through my own worst times. And best of all –it taught me how I really am lucky, whatever happens in my life.
November 4th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Great post, Tara! I found you via Cory at http://www.theabundantartist.com/embrance-chaos-and-luck-in-your-art/ and I’m glad I did! I left a couple comments over on that post that I won’t repeat here. I’ll just say that I love your “active” take on luck. We have to make it, not wait for it to happen to us.
Cheers,
Jason
November 4th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
The WOrld Series is on in the background as I type this, so it is particularly appropriate that I should be reminded of this next thought.
And it’s not even a thought of my own.
There was once a team named the Brooklyn Dodgers. They up and deserted New York for the promised land, uh, California back in the dark days of the late 1950s. At the time they were owned by a man whose name still lives infamy back here, at least among some very old people who remember. Although I remember, it’s mostly because I was told, as I was too young to really be aware of it all.
Anyhow, prior to this man who took the Dodgers to Los Angeles, the Bums, as they were nicknamed, were owned by a man named Branch Rickey. Among the many pithy things he said was one that he is famous for. Again, I’m too young by just a little bit to have heard the line first-hand, but what he used to say was, “Luck is the residue of design.”
I’ve always tried to live by that, long-winded as I’ve become or not. You have to keep putting yourself out there by your efforts, multiple, if that’s what it takes. And the reason is that you never know when that moment is set up to happen, you know, where magical things happen. So you want to be at the ready to go along for the ride.
November 7th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Saw this comment from Michael Buffer (“Let’s get ready to rumble!” sports announcer) and thought of your article (and argument, which I agree with):
“You know, there’s a lot of luck involved in anybody’s success. There’s a lot of luck involved in getting married to the right woman. Luck involved in having kids that grow up and succeed or be happy. So with this phrase, obviously, a lot of luck has been there.”
Here’s the full article link.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/lets-ready-rumble-meet-man-catchphrase/Story?id=9022704&page=3
November 8th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Luck as shown by Wiseman is an ability to see opportunities and to seize them; too often the biggest obstacle is the accepted “no it can’t be done” that is so easily dispensed by advisers and well-meaning friends.
Interesting to see this along with “learned helplessness”, and you start to see a pattern of possibilities and people that take those, even though the initial outlook might not be the easiest.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
A memory comes to mind: I had just gotten off a bus in the suburbs, on my way home. It was late at night, and was dark out. I started jogging down the street towards my house.
For whatever reason, while running in the dark after a long day, I managed to see a toonie sitting in the grass beside the sidewalk. That’s enough to pay for the bus ride.
I’ve found that any opportunity I need ends up presenting itself, if I keep my eyes open. I’ve also noticed people around me getting into unfortunate ‘accidents’, which they write off as bad luck, but which I understand was actually their fault (they weren’t watching what they were doing).
November 30th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
You should read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. He’s describing a pretty similar effect and examples people who were at the right time at the right place and were able to use these opportunities. So it’s more a combination of “luck” paired with the right attitude.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:37 am
Successful business people have known this for a long time. Seeing and taking opportunities is one of the big things that differentiates “lucky” from “unlucky” people.
The “unlucky” generally are too risk-averse for their own good. But taking risks is the only way you can truly live.
Here’s a quote from Dr. Joyce Brothers: “If you can take the worst, take the risk.”
December 1st, 2009 at 4:43 am
Here’s a thought . . . “Lucky people are more relaxed and open . . . ” so if certain people were ‘lucky’ and some ‘mystical or even none mystical’ luck brought them things ‘easily’ . . . then what are the chances of them being stressed out, forcing or closed off as they go through life? One would suspect that people ‘gifted’ with lucky encounters would NOT force or push through life, because they’d have no need to be that way WOULD THEY? On the contrary they WOULD be RELAXED and they would be open. I’m amazed at the so called scientific presentations or conclusions that just are NOT thought out at all . . .
December 1st, 2009 at 10:13 am
This is a great article. I think setting goals can play a part in “luck” also. I wrote an article on the issue a while back that caught some reader flak.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 am
Great read! thx
December 12th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Every individual human being matter but on this time the only thing i see on TV is Tigers Woods and in the other side people are dieing people WAKE UP. Lets help and change some important things and we go back to Tigers Woods again and you guys can still continue with them because they can wait. those humans who are dieing for stupid reason they cant wait.
The most shocking fact about war is that it’s victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.
It’s time to end the only form of institutionalized discrimination still permitted in our society, discrimination based on sexual identity or orientation.
I was Persecuted back home in Kosovo-former Yougoslavia 2 years ago.
I lost so much in my life my family,my everything i had. Is been almost 7 years and i never heard a word from my family and i know how much it hurts and i don’t want to see People going thorough the same thing and even worst for what GOD give it to me my Freedom my Life.
Persecution is a very strong word, why someone such as me has to hope still for my freedom It’s a much stronger word than ‘discrimination.’ It’s when somebodies life or liberty is in great jeopardy by the government, or forces that the government can’t or will not control, for a protected reason, like sexual orientation.
I kept my wits I had photographs taken of my injuries.I saved every article. When my family disowned me,I joined a gay rights organization and slept in my office. Often, even in countries where legal help is available theoretically, social hostility to homosexuals can overshadow their formal rights. Kosovo, for example,use to governed under a postwar U.N. mandate. It has laws banning discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation but abuses and crimes were only increasing.They broke my nose, they cut my neck with a knife and … they paralyzed my friend’s hand.
Publicly we were known to the press,Unfortunately, that even caused more negative attention for us.I was brutally beaten again. And my friend Lorik felt like he could not go on,He killed himself with pills and alcohol together. Because he couldn’t push his life to live you people can’t imagine what it’s like to be in one room, and not be able to go outside even a sec.And of course the only Future which we saw it was TO DIE.
Gramoz Prestreshi
December 27th, 2009 at 2:23 am
While I agree at a surface level, let’s be careful not to over apply or over simplify. Too often, I see people applying the converse idea — that if someone isn’t “lucky” that they are wrong/at fault/etc. While we may want to believe that all “luck” can be changed with the right attitude, there simply isn’t enough fact based evidence to support that conclusion. The study cited uses retrospective reporting — where the outcome is known from the outset and past history is reviewed to discover possible differences in attitude or behavior. That MIGHT explain the differences between the groups. But it is a flawed idea to conclude that there was no difference between the groups to start with. What if the people who perceived themselves as not being lucky were born with a genetically lower level of the brain chemicals that support attention and mood? If we really want to draw conclusions, we need to look at the full picture. For instance, studying identical twins who are raised apart. For identical twins, their biology is exactly the same. So, by studying the differences in their environment, we can then tease out what can be attributed to biology vs that which comes from the environment. The basic idea is that of resilience…. the ability to bounce back… and the full evidence just isn’t in yet…
Too often, we judge people harshly without considering the nuances . We fail to take into account social, economic, and biological factors.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
excellent post and spot on. You can’t fight with reality as you will lose and need to indeed go with the flow and be open to what is happening. well said.