There are many layers when it comes to luck. Luck has maybe 10% to do with success, it is the other things. The effort you put into creating that content, the decision to grab that opportunity, and choosing what risk to take when it comes to your purpose. I believe in luck but in the right context. Luck just doesn’t descend because you’re a person. What would it descend on? What have you done that luck can push on a platform or leverage on?
Pasteur said, “Luck favors the prepared mind.” What does the prepared mind look like? How can I be prepared for luck? How do you create luck or at least a major part of it? Do great things and luck descends on you.
“There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.”- Dr. Armand Hammer
Intellectual Curiosity
It is a directional force in learning and living. It develops a student mindset and the ideal life of long-life learning.
According to this study, intellectual curiosity is a process of learning through continuous interests which expand and mature with constant use, and increased understandings, developed through the solving of personally important problems.
There are two things:
- Interest
- Sentimental Inclining
This curiosity is the foundational catalyst. Everything starts from here. Intellectual curiosity drove Einstein to some of the world’s most important discoveries. – Gordan Gee
Hard Work
This is a popular notion but the gravity of what it means has not been emphasized enough. If it was easy everyone would do it. Hard work is part of the deal. You’re building a skill set and getting extraordinary at something. It is grunt work and it is unglamorous.
However, just hard work is not enough – it must be applied sensibly. Effort steadily applied to get you surprisingly far. The steady application of effort with a little bit more work, intelligently applied is what does it. Drive misapplied gets you nowhere. The misapplication of effort is a serious matter. Working hard without working smart is a delusion. It’s like throwing darts at the target blindfolded.
What does working smart look like?
Prioritizing the work you need and the amount of effort that is to be applied to each kind of work. The $10,000/ hour work framework does precisely that. It divides the kind of work we do into four different sections. Choosing what to work is ten times more important than how hard you work.
- $10/hour work: work with a deadline and can typically be done in 20 minutes. Doing only this kind of work is executing with no vision.
- $100/hour work: busywork that involves using a lot of tools. Don’t be a servant to your tools; let your tools serve you. Make sure that tool leads to behavior change and pushes you to do $10k/hour work. Are you effective or efficient?
- $1000/hour work: acquiring unique and adjacent skills creating value and building genuine relationships. Become the best in your industry and offer information and skills no one else can. Build your personal monopoly. (link)
- $10k/hour work: you have to figure what kind of work this is in your industry. Work that moves the needle. 10k work is for dreamers, it includes vision setting learning and relationship building and investing in your employees and your customers.
Take Action and Productize Yourself
Content consumption: follow creative people, read thought-provoking books, and watch shows with masterful storytelling. Actively construct your social environment and diversify from the mainstream. Don’t only consume what’s popular so you can think differently. Be a conduit for unique information. Diversifying helps you draw connections and make remixes.
Content creation: The mind is for having ideas and content creation is the execution of those ideas. The question to ask is how can I add value? It’s easy to be a content consumer but producing content takes work and clear thinking. Action uncomplicates thinking.
Luck can be created. Action prompts luck because you increase your surface area of serendipity. Think of producing content as casting a wide net, you can draw interest from places you never would have expected. – Brandon Zhang
Build relationships: reach out to people, ask for feedback, and go to events. Build a community on intentionality and vulnerability.
Build in Public and Maximize Serendipity
Building in public is an opportunity to document your growth as creative. Every established writer I’ve come across says their first pieces were terrible compared to what they write now. Another reason to build in public is that it serves as your intellectual property. It shows how you think and what mental models guide you.
Serendipity is the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. It’s the occurrence of good things by chance. Building in Public creates a vehicle for serendipity. Whether it’s a website, podcast, or YouTube channel, they are mediums to create value so people can find you. Like Katori Hall said, “serendipity always rewards the prepared.” These connections open the door to a range of opportunities. From building amazing relationships to fostering great collaborations, the opportunities are endless.
“Serendipity is nice, but hoping for luck and the magic of happenstance shouldn’t be an excuse for a lack of proactivity. I had to learn for myself that waiting isn’t a life plan” – Karen Finerman
Commitment and Mastery
Consistency is the DNA of mastery. Showing up every day whether you’re motivated or not. Optimize daily. Productize yourself; take tiny incremental steps every single day. They will compound interestingly to what you never expected.
Master your craft. Pay attention to the tiniest details and smallest finishes. You must be extraordinarily thoughtful, and continue to improve on your craft.
“The grade of work you offer to the world reflects the strength of the respect you have for yourself. Those with unfathomable personal esteem wouldn’t dare send out anything average. It would diminish them too much.” – The 5 AM Club
Mastery is a rarity and people who play at that level are a scarcity.
