“Ask for the keys to career success and you’ll get logical explanations, recommendations, pathways and approaches. Then ask someone how he or she became successful and suddenly it becomes a story of serendipitous encounters, unexpected changes in plans, and random consequences. It does not make sense to ignore this basic fact about success any longer.
We like to think that success comes from predicting trends, analyzing data, gaming out strategies — from using some sort of logical approach. But if it was that simple we should have solved the mystery of success long time ago — and we haven’t. Instead serendipity is what sets us apart — since that is the only way we can discover an approach that is not obvious or logical.”
FRANS JOHANSSON, HBR Blog Network (19 October, 2012)
I have long harboured a suspicion about success. Listen to successful people discuss the reasons behind their triumphs, and you will get a long list of laudable attributes: Hard work, determination, judgement, resilience – and many more.
But there’s one force almost never discussed. And that is luck, pure and simple.
This is understandable. No one wants to say: “I made it because I happened to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.” We all want to point to things we did to cause success. It is almost an admission of failure, or at least a dilution of success to concede: “I was just bloody lucky.”
Here’s the thing, though: hard work, perseverance, insight and the rest are all good, important things. But so is luck, and it’s time we owned up to it.
That’s why I was delighted to see Frans Johansson, author of a bestselling book and leader of a top consulting firm, coming clean on the HBR blogs page recently. He admitted that a couple of serendipitous conversations that happened at exactly the right time were what launched him into the limelight. Without them, he might still have been struggling to be noticed.
This rings true in my own life. What I do these days – running a leadership programme, writing two weekly columns, lecturing, public speaking – was never part of the ‘plan.’ I know very well that some chance conversations came out of the blue, got me thinking, and led to me opening certain doors that revealed the presence of other doors. Had those unexpected chats not happened when they did, I could have been leading a quite different life.
(I also recognize that I have had some fresh chats of late that may cause yet another dramatic change…)
Johansson points out that serendipity, far from being an anomaly, may actually play a central role in determining success. But here’s the thing: you have to be able to recognize good fortune when it appears; and you have to be ready to act on it. It isn’t just about dumb luck; it’s more about your preparedness for making the most of the luck when it arrives in your life.
And this applies just as strongly to bad luck: success comes from your ability to repeatedly weather the storms of misfortune and wait for the sun to shine on you again. Did you know that the makers of the phenomenally successful ‘Angry Birds’ video game made 51 unsuccessful games before latching onto the one that made them famous?
Pretending that luck doesn’t matter doesn’t help us. Recognizing that it does, and being prepared for its unexpected arrival, makes us alert and watchful. Here’s the thing about ‘lucky’ people: they are usually more likely to notice important developments; more likely to have the nerve to act on them; more likely to have oiled the wheels of knowledge that help them move quickly when the time arrives.
Your life can change in a moment. Will you know when that moment is here?
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Something that is always swept under the carpet in success gospels. Finally, someone to explain why becoming a president of a nation might just depend on being born at the right family. That is luck.
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Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of USA said it many years ago: I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it
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…and that is why religion will always flourish and thrive…some people have worked so hard but nothing comes out of their outstanding effort – but a few who try a few knocks find the gates of successes opening! This is luck, providence, karma, kismet,fate,destiny etc. Thanks Sunny for the insights.
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Being at the right place at the right time with the right attitude and eyes wide open for that opportunity…
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Sunny Bindra Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Chandesh:
And the first two parts of that (right place, right time) are the lucky bits…
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Dear Sunny,
Successful people are lucky people; that is an irrefutable fact. People who have received huge breaks in their lives are usually shy of attributing them moderately down to luck as you have correctly pointed out, but the ‘old lady’ has a firm place in many of our accomplishments.
It is also a fact that opportunity or the breaks really do come to many of us and therefore a sense of preparedness is the caveat when it comes to getting lucky. People that develop and exercise the martial [rational] virtues of success like hard work, resilience, and determination are most likely to ‘receive’ [read: recognize] and make the most out of these breaks. The laudable attributes as featured in nearly all the literature in the ‘success movement’ are therefore not in themselves responsible for the great accomplishments and achievements. Actually, I believe they might just be a sort of secret filter that God or nature uses to cull the unprepared from receiving the breaks. Well, scarcely will luck slap you in the face to recognize it or drag you out of your comfort zones.
The essence of luck is being at the right place, at the right time and doing the right thing, and I doubt if there is anyone that can develop a system or formula to help zero in on such moments – he would be rich by now.
Great thoughts Sunny. Please post the link for that article, I would love to read it.
You might also benefit from the insights on Richard Wiseman’s book on the subject; “The Luck Factor”. It has stunning conclusions on a subject that no one thought could be empirically studied. He offers very interesting tips on how this kind of luck can actually be “manufactured”.
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Sunny Bindra Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
John:
Thanks, I’ll look it up…
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