Is Success a Product of Luck or Hard Work?
Is success a product of luck or chance? Or is it a product of hard work?
Many successful people consider themselves lucky or fortunate—Warren Buffet attributes a lot of his success to simply winning the “ovarian lottery.”
Yes, where you are born and other socioeconomic factors play a role in your life’s trajectory. But finding success is also driven by many things, including desire, determination, willingness to learn, and diligence.
According to psychology professor and researcher Richard Wiseman, your resiliency, mindset, and ability to act quickly and intuitively to seize opportunities also increases your chances of being lucky.
Whether you’re leading a team, building a business, or focusing on your personal development, you control much of your destiny.
Here are 7 ways to bring luck on your side:
1. Create your own karma.
Work from a mindset of abundance and pay it forward. Share your time, gifts, and knowledge with others. The random acts of kindness, bonds you create, and relationships you build will only contribute to your luck in the future.
2. Constant learning matters.
Change is inevitable, so developing the willingness and ability to learn quickly and efficiently is crucial.
Self-made billionaire Mark Cuban embraces constant learning. “I recognize that learning is truly a skill and that by continuing to learn, to this day, I’m able to compete and keep up and get ahead of most people. The reality is most people don’t put in the time to keep up and learn. That’s always given me a competitive advantage.”
3. Evaluate your habits.
How well are your habits serving you?
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says, “It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”
Are you ready to establish better habits? Here are eight strategies.
4. Engage in small talk.
Depending on your personality, you may love it or hate it. But engaging in small talk establishes trust, sparks positive feelings, and offers other benefits you may not even have considered. A simple human conversation with someone often yields important information and opportunities you can capitalize on later.
5. Be comfortable with failing.
The positive side of failure is something we often talk about in our Leadership to Live By℠ workshops. You should become comfortable venturing outside your comfort zone.
The fear of failure is a powerful force that leaves many of us feeling stuck. But there’s a lot to learn in those uncomfortable moments of defeat, discomfort, and failure. The resulting lessons often lead to personal and professional growth.
6. Wake up earlier.
You may not think an alarm clock could impact your success, but waking up earlier has many benefits, including time to yourself, prioritizing exercise, lowering stress, and increasing energy levels.
Just make sure you’re getting enough sleep—you may need an earlier bedtime to reap the benefits of an early morning!
7. Build resiliency.
Being resilient won’t make you immune to problems. But it can help you better handle stress and improve your ability to adapt to change and handle the challenges you face. Read on for tips to improve your resilience.
We cannot control our luck—good or bad—but we can control our dedication, hard work, planning, and preparation. As author Coleman Cox said, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”