Do you think you’re lucky? And if you do, why do you think your luck runs the way it does, good or bad?
Have you ever stopped to work out the reason? If luck were completely random, it would be strange for it to keep landing on the same people. Or have you ever wondered how you might grow your luck?
Luck comes in kinds. Winning the lottery, walking away from a bad accident, being surrounded by good people. Which kind do you seem to have?
Out of all those kinds, isn’t there some luck we can actually make? I’m not about to tell you to hang a mirror by your front door, or carry a red wallet so money comes in, or pray to your ancestors. I mean that one particular kind of luck can be trained the way a skill is trained.
Split luck into four kinds, and some of them turn out to be the growable sort.
Chance and inevitability
Today’s material comes from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, a book collecting Naval Ravikant’s writing and interviews. Naval is an American founder and venture investor, an early backer of Twitter, Uber, and Notion.
He splits luck into four kinds: blind luck, luck from hustle, luck from a prepared mind, and luck that finds you.
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Blind luck: what we usually mean by the word. Winning the lottery, picking up cash off the street, pure coincidence. This is not something to count on. Most people assume all luck works this way, but the other three kinds are the ones you can build.
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Luck from hustle: the odds go up the harder you work. A salesperson who meets enough customers, or a founder who keeps meeting investors, will eventually catch one. Do enough things and openings appear. Catching this kind takes a lot of effort.
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Luck from a prepared mind: the opening is there for everyone, but you’re the only one who sees it. Anyone could have bought the stock before it ran up, but only someone with enough information and conviction digs it out and makes money on it. Catching this kind takes deep expertise in one field.
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Luck that finds you: there’s something only you can do, so the luck comes looking for you. Stumbling across a treasure map is plain coincidence. But if you’re the only person able to read that map, then whoever finds it has to come to you. Catching this kind takes expertise and a reputation.
Blind luck is an accident. Luck that finds you is closer to inevitable. Build a life on accidents and it stays unstable, but inevitability is something you can build steadily.
References
- The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant (link)
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