Are you converting your 'chances' to 'Luck' & 'Success'

Hello Career Trekkers, Welcome to the 13th edition of our newsletter. The last week I have been exploring the relevance and impact of luck in our professional journey through few books and this edition captures my insights & learnings. Hope you find them helpful and reflective.

Overall Summary : There are things that are outside our control, like the socio-economic-cultural background you are born into. Some have privilege and others don't. Beyond that everyone gets their chances to manufacture LUCK. One needs to build their ability to be open minded to possibilities, sense the right opportunity, seize the moment and make the most of it. We either ignore the chances and call it destiny (or) Embrace the chances and call it luck. Here are my reflections from the three book summaries I read recently.

"The Serendipity Mindset"

Insights:

1. Don't have a very SMART goal. A smart(super focused) goal helps you achieve the goal, but only the goal(It blinds you to other possibilities). A lot more is possible if we keep our options open and have a more broad based.

- Don't follow a Google map approach, follow a compass approach. Long term specific goals may not be a good idea for attracting serendipity (Luck)

2. Importance of networking. Lets look at creating "Serendipity hooks" while we introduce ourselves to strangers. Make the introduction little longer and interesting. Don't stop at, "I am currently doing this role at this company". Say, "I am doing this currently, while I am interested in the XYZ areas and am engaging with XYZ people(mentors)". You tend to open up lot more possibilities with the second approach for the conversation to build on. You are setting up yourself to attract more luck.

✅Chance is random; Luck is not; Luck = Chance + Talent + Hardwork;

🤔When 'Chance' happens to you, are you ready? Luck is what happens when prepartion meets opportunity. 😇Anil Ambani and Mukesh both inherited a legacy and fortune and only one made it big. 😇Tendulkar and Kambli both had great starts to Indian cricket career and only one had a grand ending.

✅Three P's for LUCK : Passion, Persistence and Placement;

Lets talk about Placement. We heard many big actors who mentioned how they just landed in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad etc and waited patiently while continuing to meet directors, producers infront of production houses for a very short meeting. The actors who made it big were ever ready for an audition.

⭐Networking with people in your aspirational role/domain and being vocal but subtle your ambition is important. Power of these weak ties is the most important for you to get that break in your current organization or else where.

🌀Whether you choose to stay at home (or) to attend an industry forum - You are deciding your luck. 🌀Whether you choose to just keep learning on the job (or) to take up a course outside work and upskill yourself - You are deciding your luck.

Luck is more predictable than you think. You can learn to get lucky. Here you go. 9 rules to create your LUCK

Sociability is a predictor of opportunity; Proximity is a predictor of acquaintanceship;

Rule#1 Going/appearing last improves your success rate, if you are in a competition where there are Judges. Eg: While looking for a house/property, you will be more critical in evaluating the first than you will be towards the end. When the boss is reviewing teams in a sequence, the first teams gets more time and detailing; the last team generally gets to see lighter side of things 🙂

Rule#2 Proximity/Familiarity improves likeability. No wonder business development folks prefer a face-face meeting even if it is for a shorter duration. Increasing face-time helps

Rule#3 Appearance matters. A Doctor with white coat put-on is trusted more. A musician dressed as a typical one is celebrated more. So, Dress for your next role; Power dressing is real;

Rule#4 Being attractive gets more attention and hence luck. Lets ignore if we dont consider ourself attractive

Rule#5 Confidence improves your luck. Confidence makes you pitch yourself better and take that extra step to make your case with people who matter

Rule#6 Acccess to resources (people, platforms & finances) matters. so dont be hard on yourself unnecessarily

Rule#7 Self-discipline multiples chances on sereperndity. So be at it

Rule#8 Who you know is more important than what you know. keep investing time and efforts in improving diversity of your network.

Rule#9 Staying curious about new things will improve your luck. Try new things and get lucky 🙂

I hope these insights have been reflective and helpful. Do try them and share your experience with me. Wishing you best of LUCK in everything you do.

#coachram #careertrek #luck #serendipity #chances #careers