Fred Wilson had a great post with the title “Get Lucky”. I could not resist writing about it. Startup Iceland 2014 speaker Liad Agmon gave a great talk about how he got lucky and this post reminded me of that talk. I meet a lot of people as part of what I do and I continuously try to learn by watching how people create their own luck. People like Fred and Brad, who are open, transparent and willing to share their thoughts and ideas, give before they get or just give their time etc are the people who consistently get lucky with things. I consider myself to be extremely lucky as well, I live in an awesome country, have a wonderful wife and daughter, I love what I do and really motivates me to do more everyday. I find it interesting when I meet someone and they complain about being in a dead-end job or they are not doing what they are passionate about etc I just ask myself why don’t you stop doing what you are not passionate about and find something else to do? I know the typical answer, well my dead-end job pays the bills and I cannot afford to quit…
Fred refers to a research by psychologist Richard Wiseman did on people who consider themselves lucky or unlucky, there are many references that are applicable. Getting lucky is not a random event, according to the author, getting lucky (and unlucky) is a function of state of mind (positive vs negative), being open minded, and trusting your gut. These are things that everyone of us can choose to do. Being positive again is a choice, same for being open minded and trusting your gut. I wonder why is it difficult to follow through on these?
