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Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, has studied luck and found that lucky people share traits that tend to make them luckier than others. First, lucky people take advantage of chance occurrences that come their way. Instead of going through life on cruise control, they pay attention to what’s happening around them and, therefore, are able to extract greater value from each situation. Lucky people are also open to novel opportunities and willing to try things outside of their usual experiences. For example, they’re more inclined to pick up a book on an unfamiliar subject, to travel to less familiar destinations, and to interact with people who are different than themselves.
Not surprisingly, lucky people tend to be extraverted. They also make more eye contact and smile more frequently, leading to more positive and extended encounters. These actions, in turn, open the door to more opportunities. Lucky people also tend to be optimistic and to expect good things to happen to them. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because even when things don’t go as expected, lucky people find ways to extract positive outcomes from the worst situations. Their attitude affects those around them, and helps to turn negative situations into positive experiences.
In short, being observant, open-minded, friendly, and optimistic invites luck your way. Take this simple story: Several years ago I was at a small local grocery store frequented mostly by those who live nearby. A man and his young daughter approached me in the frozen-food aisle and politely asked how to prepare frozen, canned lemonade. The man had an accent I couldn’t identify, and I was pretty sure he must be new to the area. I told him how to prepare the lemonade and asked where he was from. He said Santiago, Chile. I asked his name and what brought him to our town. I had no ulterior motive other than curiosity about what he was doing here. He told me his name was Eduardo and that he and his family were in the area for a year so he could learn about entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. He was in line to run his family’s business and was in search of tools to make it more innovative. I told him about my role at the entrepreneurship program at Stanford University and said I’d be happy to do what I could to be of help. Over the next few months I introduced Eduardo to various people in the entrepreneurship community, and he expressed his thanks for my assistance.
Fast-forward three years. I was heading for a conference in Santiago and sent Eduardo a message asking if he wanted to get together for coffee. At the last minute, he wasn’t able to make it, but invited me to go to a specific location in downtown Santiago with a few of my colleagues. We showed up at the office building and were led to the roof, where we were picked up by Eduardo’s family’s private helicopter for a simply amazing ride above the city, up to the surrounding mountains, and over his family’s ski resort. It was incredible! And to think that it resulted from helping him figure out how to make lemonade. Of course, I didn’t help Eduardo because I wanted a helicopter ride. But by putting myself out there, being open to helping someone, and following up years later, I became quite “lucky.” Many people talk about the art of turning lemons (problems) into lemonade (opportunities). But luck goes beyond this—it’s about turning lemonade into helicopters!
I am delighted to be in Chile once again, five years later. Again, I sent a message to Eduardo. After all this time, he still remembers me and we plan to have lunch next week. This story is a fabulous reminder that luck is usually right under your nose, or standing next to you in the grocery store. You just have to pay attention and invite it your way.
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This blog post is an edited excerpt from What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, published by HarperCollins in April 2006.
