It’s a common sentiment:
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
It’s a book, but I’m sure the orignial quote is like Mark Twain or something.
I’ll admit it resonates with me. When I’m really working hard on the right things, for all the world to see, good things tend to happen. Things that seem random at first, but are a little too serendipitous to be pure luck. Success begets success. When it rains it pours. You get it.
But can all that be codified? Sahil Bloom thinks so. First, there are types of luck that tend to concentrate at different parts of your life:
(1) Blind Luck (“early years of your life”)
(2) Luck from Motion (“hustle in your 20s”)
(3) Luck from Awareness (“experience in your 30s”)
(4) Luck from Uniqueness (anytime)
That tracks for me, especially the unwritten part where you get jack nothing in your 40’s 🫠.
Better, there are things you can do to increase your luck, or your “luck surface area” which I like even more:
(1) Talk to more new people—go out instead of staying in.
(2) Send more cold emails.
(3) Write/share in public.
(4) Actively participate in digital communities.
(5) Spend more time in rooms where you’re the dumbest person.
(6) You got to know when to hold em. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away, and when to run
I had a business school professor give a lecture on career excellence being a combination of hard work and luck and how the two can either complement or oppose. Though he did mention inevitability, he emphasized there were always ways to hedge to increase successful likelihood.
I dug his lecture but he would have really sold it by rocking “luck surface area” as an expression!
Excellent points at all angles!