Is There Really Such a Thing as Luck? Are Some People “Luckier” Than Others?

There are two types of things that happen that people commonly refer to as luck, we’ll call the first “blind” luck and the other “self-created luck”. Let me define each of those for you.

Blind Luck

Blind luck is essentially, luck that is unexpected or comes from nowhere. This can also be thought of as a miracle. People oftentimes confuse blind luck for self-created luck. You would be surprised after reading this how much stuff that people place into the “blind luck” category isn’t really luck.

Blind luck or a miracle, must not be explainable. For example, if someone buys a lottery ticket and then loses it, and someone else picks it up and claims the jackpot off that ticket. People might call them lucky, but you’ll find it is actually self-created luck and not blind luck, which makes a significant difference. Because the lottery ticket was explainable, I.E., someone purchased it in the first place, it cannot be blind luck, although the person who found the ticket may have not seen it coming, they put themselves in a position to be “lucky” and this then falls into self-created luck.

On the other hand, if you’re sitting in your chair in your house and a lottery ticket blows into your window and when traced back to its origins it has none, I.E., no one actually purchased it, it just seemed to come out of thin-air, then this could be considered blind-luck.

Self-Created Luck

This brings us to our next point of discussion, self-created luck, which is what luck is mostly made up of. Self-created luck is when someone puts themselves in the position to be lucky, I.E., they actually buy a lottery ticket. We’ll go into more details about Self-Created luck below, since that’s what most of this article is about.

Lucky People Share Common Characteristics

Wait a second, if it’s luck, it’s random right? How can lucky people share common characteristics? That’s because most luck that you see is self-created luck, and if you notice, some people appear to be lucky all the time while you can’t catch a break. You’ll also notice that you have a pessimistic outlook on luck while they all but expect great things to happen to them.

How much of luck can be what you think of as “luck” when people have a hand in the outcome?

In the Position

In every aspect of our lives from finance, education, job promotions, to just about everything else; you’ll hear people talk about luck. They talk about it just like thousands of years ago when people used to worship the stars and various gods. It was something unexplainable that they couldn’t quite grasp and you’ll find people today doing that exact same mystical thing with luck.

You may be surprised in school when a professor gives one of your classmates a better grade than you got, and more importantly, a better grade than you thought they deserved. You may tell the, “Wow, you’re lucky he gave you an A instead of a B”

It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile

But what you didn’t see is that classmate of yours talking to the professor after class, or asking him for help, or making frequent visits to his office. Thus, establishing a personal relationship with the professor. The professor knew that this particular student cared about the class and coursework and in return the professor wanted to see this student excel. That’s something most people are oblivious too, they’d rather pawn it off to luck. Sure, it might be luck, but the student positioned himself to receive luck. The beauty is that you can too!

This happens in every aspect of our lives. What you call luck is actually someone working hard or at least making the effort to be in a position to become “lucky” while you sit there sedentary doing absolutely nothing to get any yourself and complaining.

Why Your Co-Workers Do Better Than You

Why did another employee get a promotion over you? After all, you worked hard, you were next in line, you’re better at your job than they were, you deserve it not them, why did they get lucky and get the promotion?

This too is probably explainable and has very little to with luck. Maybe you’re a dick? Do you know if you are? Did you read my article titled “Don’t be a Dick?”.

Or could it be the fact they remembered their boss’s birthday, they apologized when they were wrong, they shared the credit when they deserved all of it, they said thank you when something nice came their way, stayed longer at the office, showed up earlier, invited their boss to lunch or dinner to talk about their job performance, or maybe some combination or all of the above? How much luck do you really think was involved in that promotion? This is how the world works.

Extra Effort Pays Off

How about your colleague in writing who finally gets a book published? Was he lucky? Or was it the fact that he sent off letter after letter, kits after kits, called publishers, met with them, and did everything that he could possibly imagine while you half-assed it? Is that luck?

Lottery Winners

Even simple things that people like to complain about are lottery winners. These people are lucky, sure they are, but they did go and buy the ticket, most of the people complaining didn’t even do that. You have to put yourself in the position to be lucky.

Treasure Finding

The guy that finds treasure washed up on the beach while walking on the beach before sunset early one morning? Is he lucky? Maybe, but while you’re sound asleep, these people are out doing something, anything really, and they are putting themselves in positions to be lucky.

You can’t find treasure on the beach if you never walk the beach or if you’re late to the party. You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket (you can but then that would really be lucky), you will be passed up on many job promotions if you’re a dick or don’t go the extra mile.

Put yourself in the position to be lucky so the next time luck strikes others are telling you how lucky you are. Then you can smile back at them knowing you were once like them too.

Think of it like planting a garden. You have a better chance at getting a good crop if you provide your plants with the best soil, water, sunshine, and growing conditions in your control.

Believing

The other characteristic that lucky people have in common is believing. This characteristic is so overwhelmingly powerful that it can be accounted for in even those miracle type situations.

Michael Jordan Beliefs

If you ask Michael Jordan how he made so many game winning shots, he may say he was lucky but he’ll also tell you that he believed he could. People that don’t believe they can do things, don’t take the shots. He believed in himself and knew he could do it. Confidence is king.

Believing in Yourself

Believing is very common in athletes who are lucky. The long hail marry pass, is that luck? Of course not, what is so lucky about a professional NFL quarterback throwing a football 60-70 yards to an area where an NFL receiver knows and believes he can catch it? There are defenders there who know they can intercept or knock the pass away. What if those defenders didn’t believe that? These people believe in their abilities and themselves.

The home run grab? Wow, how did you catch that! I just believed I could. If they didn’t believe they could catch it, they wouldn’t go for it.

The successful business owner? Was Bill Gates lucky? Not entirely! Do you know how hard he worked and how much he believed in his visions to make Microsoft a reality? The same goes for Walt Disney and a lot of other successful people. They all hit hard roads. Barricades and walls are put up to stop people from getting something they don’t really want badly enough. And it works! Lots of people drop out on that path to success, they give up. They no longer believe or stick with it. They sit back in defeat admiring the “luck” of others.

Stephen King collected piles and piles of rejection notices and was about to quit before he got his breakthrough.

These stories are abundant and accompanying each story is what people call “luck”. When you start to study people that you call lucky, you’ll oftentimes find, that it really wasn’t all lucks doing, and that these people were simply putting themselves in the position to receive luck.

Get the point? Sometimes you need to believe in yourself and your abilities and just go for it.