Success Key: Seducing Lady Luck into Smiling at You

Lady Luck is a fickle mistress. Some days she loves you, and some days she treats you like she just caught you knocking boots with her best friend in the broom closet.

Most days though, she just ignores you.

This is unfortunate, because as much as we all want success to be a simple formula – “follow steps X, Y, and Z, and success happens” – the truth of the matter is that “making it” usually relies on a fair dose of luck.

I read a great post about this on author J.A. Konrath’s blog which was simply titled, “How to Succeed.” It’s written as advice for aspiring novelists, but the advice applies to pretty much anyone. You can read it here:

How to Succeed

If you didn’t read it, I’ll sum it up for you, since Konrath just offers one piece of advice over and over:

Keep at it long enough until you get lucky.

Want to succeed as a novelist and sell thousands of books and make your living writing? The secret is to keep at it long enough until you get lucky.

The same applies to any endeavor worth pursuing. You just have to have the stamina, persistence, and willingness to keep at it long enough until you get lucky. 

Sometimes the path is short and quick, and sometimes it is long and difficult. You never know when you start out. The key is to keep at it until you get lucky.

People who succeed are the ones who eventually have Lady Luck smile on them. People who fail are the ones who give before she has a chance to pay them any heed.

Yes, your talent, character, and hard work matter. But at the end of the day, your success will happen when the right combination of events, individuals, and timing come together.

To quote from Konrath’s blog:

Q: Aren’t talent and hard work more important than luck?

Joe: They can help you get lucky. 

The nice thing is that, as Konrath says, you can do things to help you get lucky. Here are three things you can do to make it more likely that Lady Luck will turn her success-bringing smile your way:

1) Get Better

Try not to be offended by what I am about to say here:

You can be better.

How can I say that, since chances are I have no idea how good you are right now? Easy. Because everyone can be better.

The first mistake that people make when trying to achieve their goals is that they overestimate just how good they are. If I had a nickel for every person I came across who thought they were better than they were, I would have a veritable plethora of nickels, indeed. These people think, “I’m awesome! If I could just get a shot, I would be fine!”

Maybe. Or maybe that “shot” would let people see how average you are. Or maybe that “shot” already happened, and you didn’t even realize it.

Yes, sometimes horribly untalented people get lucky and succeed, and sometimes amazingly talented people languish in obscurity, but overall, the better you are, the more likely you are to generate that luck that you need to be successful. You’ll also be much more able to seize that opportunity when luck sends it your way.

Question: What are you doing today, and everyday, to get better?

2) Put Yourself Out There

The second mistake people make is that they expect success to come to them. No one is looking for you! No one is going to knock on your door out of the blue and just drop off a golden ticket for you! (Even Charlie of Willy Wonka fame had to buy a chocolate bar – a dubious financial decision at the time, but hey, at least he tried…)

If you want to get lucky, you have to let people know who you are.

Some people long for success but then never do anything about it:

• They write a great resume but never send it to anyone.
• They never pitch their great business idea to investors.
• They never fill out a job or school application.
• They never submit a proposal for a project they want.
• They never post their writing in a place where others can see it.
• They never put any time or effort into marketing their product.

It doesn’t matter how good you are. If no one knows about you, you’ll never be found. You have to be out there if you want luck to find you.

Question: What are you doing today, and everyday, to put yourself out there?

3) Increase Your Output

The more you produce the more chances you have of getting lucky. It’s just that simple.

Contact one potential employer, and you have a shot at getting a good job. Contact one-hundred, and you have ninety-nine more chances.

I have seen people take one shot at something, not get the result they want, and then give up. After one try. That’s worse than putting all your eggs in one basket. That’s like only having one egg to begin with, then trying to carry it home balancing it on your nose, and then, when it falls and breaks, running home and crying about how unfair the world is for not recognizing your genius.

Crazy.

If you are good (and getting better) and if you are putting yourself out there, the best way to increase your chances of getting lucky is to increase your output. 

Write more. Apply more. Network more. Submit more. Ask more. Speak more.

Don’t burn yourself out, but simply ask yourself, am I really doing enough to maximize my chances of getting lucky?

Question: What are you doing today, and everyday, to increase your output?

I truly hope you are fortunate enough to have Lady Luck beam at you quick and early on your path. For the rest of you (and by “you” I mean “us”), follow J.A. Konrath’s simple advice: keep at it long enough until you get lucky.

And now I leave you with a simple line from the original blog post:

“You can quit if you want to. Or you can stick with it until you get lucky.”

The choice is yours…

P.S. Hey, if you like this post, why don’t you share the love and click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this page…?

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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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