Office by Alex Penny
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Robert X. Cringely’s first tip for would-be entrepreneurs is: avoid stupid and unlucky people.
Starting a company is hard, so I’m taking Cringely’s advice.
I want to be lucky.
For decades my father has told me that it’s better to be lucky than to be good.
I don’t just want to be good; I want to be excellent. My dad says that to be excellent I should surround myself with people who have good luck. He tells me that people with good luck are contagious — as are people with bad luck!
He regularly affirms: “Avoid the unlucky, the unethical, and the unhappy.”
As far as finding people who are ethical and happy, I have a strategy. My startup co-founder has a sixth sense when it comes to sniffing out ethics; that is why I call her Detective Troutgirl. As for happiness, lessons are repeated until they are learned. I believe there is no way to happiness because happiness is the way; consequently, people reveal their true colors in conversation. But what about luck?
I want to find people as attracted to luck as cats are attracted to heat.
To create luck, I conjure up some scientistic sleuthing.
If 80% of success is showing up, then 80-90% of luck is an excellent attitude.
Those numbers are corroborated by businessman Daymond John and psychologist Richard Wiseman:
Daymond John boldly declared on Shark Tank, ”Life is like business. It’s 20% what happens to you, and 80% how you respond.”
Richard Wiseman concurs, “Only about 10% of life is purely random. The remaining 90% is defined by the way we think. Our attitudes produce our luck.”
I read those sentiments and think to myself: Still, there’s that remaining 10-20% that is pure luck, and that’s the part we need EVEN if we work hard and make wise choices. So… how can we MAKE more luck?
In 2010 I joked that I should invest in a luck factory — I’d make a fortune!
Since then, I’ve become aware that there are traits that we can practice to increase our ability to make our own luck.
On 106miles.net I summarized Bakadesuyo’s article How can you become more lucky? by noting that lucky people practice four traits: openness, intuition, optimism, and resilience.
Practice every day, as much as possible:
1. Openness to new experiences. Network. Meet new people. Re-engage with people you know.
2. Intuition. Listen to yourself. Meditate to clear your mind regularly.
3. Optimism. The mind is a feedback loop that creates self-fulfilling prophecies, so be positive.
4. Resilience. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
To that I add, don’t try to avoid pain:
Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for. (mis-attributed to Bob Marley; actual author unknown)
Be open. Be intuitive. Be optimistic. Be resilient. Don’t fear pain. Good luck!
In the meantime, I’m going to make it a habit to hang out with people who are lucky, and we’ll see.
To be lucky, I will stay interconnected and get enough sleep. Yes, sleep…
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
