Are you lucky? If you think so, congratulations. If not, there is good news. You can improve your luck. Cynics may note, correctly, that we can’t control the weather, prevent natural disasters or determine when or to whom we are born, but there are strategies for measurably improving our luck in important situations.
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To improve your luck, improve your odds. Buying two lottery tickets instead of one doesn't change much but we do increase the chance of a lucky result when we increase the number of opportunities for something good to happen. For example, a typical sales pipeline is 100 calls resulting in 10 meetings that yield one sale. Making more calls will lead to more meetings that result in more sales. Junior sales people soon learn volume improves their odds.
To apply the volume strategy to networking, meet with many people briefly but long enough to establish meaningful rapport. Meeting more people increases your odds of making a valuable connection. Multiply this approach by attending one networking event a week and watch your luck improve rapidly.
I’ve employed the networking strategy with good results. Once I made a great hire through a chance encounter on an airplane, another time I closed a significant business partnership by attending an obscure Meetup for just 15 minutes. Opportunity is everywhere, if you are open to finding it in unusual places.
Sometimes less, not more, improves our odds. Reaching the top of the hyper-competitive US mobile app space is extremely difficult. The odds of reaching number one are much better in smaller English language markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore or The Netherland, which results in far more awareness of the app when it is introduced in the U.S. or U.K.
Related: Do Entrepreneurs Make Their Own Luck -- Or Not?
Believing you are lucky becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is research that shows good luck charms improve confidence and that has a measurable impact on performance. Once you focus on becoming lucky, and get better at creating positive outcomes, more positive outcomes will follow. This positive spiral is also known as a network effect.
These strategies won’t improve your odds of picking a winning lottery number, regardless how many tickets you buy, but for life's big opportunities, this is the only luck you need. You only need one lucky encounter to Land that great job, makie a once-in-a-lifetime investment or close the big sale. Good luck!
Related: Richard Branson: To Be Successful in Business, You Need a Little Luck
