Last week I got LUCKY.
🙂
Actually I was Lucky all week, and that point was driven home to me by Ransom Stephens, writer/speaker/physicist, who gave a one-hour presentation to the Marin Professionals on “The Big Picture and Big Decisions”: How the power of positive thought increases our probabilities . . . and, thus, our “luck.”
Paradise is easier to find than it is to recognize
1. Luck is a “random” process: Like many people, I used to think random meant arbitrary or capricious or totally unpredictable. But random really means that every time something happens, we have an equal chance for the good thing to happen as the not-so-good.
If we have an equal chance, then nothing external can hold us back — and everything we have on our insides can propel us forward.
When I open up my Facebook account or look at Tweetdeck, the icon/message could be from any one of a number of connections; when I respond to any of those updates, I help create what results.
2. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity: Many people are totally confused by social media and its jargon and its continuing stream of New — new buzzwords, new tools, new strategies.
This fear and distrust of the unknown has to be silenced in order to begin the learning process that will open a whole new world of possibilities.
Take LinkedIn, for example; when you spend some time with just one social media site, and you tweak your profile, and you answer some questions, and you join some groups — you just may find a new career opportunity, new business partner, and/or a slew of new clients.
3. The Placebo Effect and the power of positive thoughts: Nothing wins like winning. How often does the “home field advantage” play a role in the win? It’s all about that confidence.
Social media wins are not hocus pocus. They are an accumulation of you going “out there” with the intention to learn, listen, interact, and create win-win situations for everyone you touch.
4. The more opportunities you have, the luckier you will be: Maximize your changes. Work harder
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Extroverts are luckier than introverts: When you interact with people and you feel more energetic when you leave, then you are an extrovert. When you feel drained afterwards, you are an introvert.
Be the extrovert — especially online. Go out and meet people. Search Twitter for some keyword phrase of interest like Future of Advertising. If someone says something intelligent, follow them and say HI.
5. Have your bags packed for the opportunities that come along: Good fortune is wasted if you can’t act on it. View every “misstep” as a step on the path to good fortune. That’s what “paying your dues” is all about.
Most of us have heard stories of really successful people who’ve experienced lots of failure on the road to riches, stardom, and success.
If you are “out there” — writing or reading a blog like this, creating a Facebook Fan Page for your business, tweeting and sharing valuable information and ideas — then you, too, can be one of the luckiest people in the world.
BTW: Transitions are the paths from one paradise to the next. — Ransom Stephens
How lucky are you?
I love it when I give a speech and someone totally gets it! For me, the coolest thing about thinking of luck as a random process (i.e., that the distribution of fortunate occurrences for each person on earth follows a normal distribution, or bell curve) is that there really is a luckiest person on earth, but since it’s random, it will all change … right now! In my book, The God Patent, Ryan McNear pushes hard to turn his luck around, to find paradise after years of bad choices, but like Shari said, “Paradise is easier to find than it is to recognize.”
Ransom . . . one of the lucky things that happened to me that week was making the decision to come to the meeting, not having known about you before.
HMMM . . . definitely says something about “making your own luck,” right?