By Kaywen Z
Well, not exactly…
Luck cannot be engineered like a machine; you cannot manufacture coincidence. However, the conditions that make fortunate encounters more likely can be deliberately cultivated.
Luck plays a role in almost every pursuit. Some people seem to encounter fortunate opportunities far more often than the rest of us. Are they genuinely luckier, or do they understand something about luck that the rest of us overlook?
In 1978, clinical neurologist and Zen practitioner Dr James H. Austin explored this question in his book Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty. Austin proposed four varieties of chance (his choice of word for luck), and examined the extent to which each could be influenced by human action.
The most discussed is probably Austin’s second variety of chance. Commonly associated with the Kettering Principle, it suggests that luck emerges from constant motion. Charles Kettering says that you are more likely to stumble onto something while moving than while standing still.
Which is literally true, since you cannot stumble while sitting still. Rather than framing luck purely as a reward for courage, as the saying “fortune favours the bold” does, the Kettering Principle offers a more holistic explanation. Discovery often emerges from motion, experimentation and accidental by-products rather than perfect foresight.
Pete Idochie once said: “Let the young man in his desperation go out and hunt; if he kills the elephant, his poverty ends; if the elephant kills him, his poverty ends.
But motion should not be confused with reckless risk-taking.
Indeed, luck can disproportionately reward those willing to take risks, as seen in cases such as Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of Harvard to build Facebook, Tony Fernandes acquiring the failing AirAsia, and Michael Burry’s bet against the housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crash.
However, we are clouded by survivorship bias when discussing these great men and their “lucky breaks”, ignoring the rest who took bold steps to go out and hunt, only to end up getting killed by the elephant instead.
For every celebrated person whose bold gamble succeeded, many others made similarly bold decisions and failed. Successful risk-taking is remembered as courage and foresight, while the unsuccessful ones are dismissed as foolishness — or forgotten altogether. Boldness on its own, without judgment, can simply produce avoidable failure.
So, how do we capture Austin’s second variety of chance? Psychologist Richard Wiseman spent ten years studying hundreds of people who considered themselves exceptionally lucky or unlucky.
He identified four broad principles that distinguished the two groups. The most relevant here was that lucky people tend to be open to new experiences, vary their routines and talk to strangers.
In other words, they expanded their “luck surface area” — the range of opportunities available for people, ideas and experiences to intersect or collide with their lives. Curiosity, exploration and movement increase the probability of these collisions. Most may lead nowhere, but among them could be one or two that produce a lucky breakthrough.
Although you cannot know in advance which encounter will matter. That uncertainty is precisely what makes it chance.
There you have it. If you wish to create luck, leave the house, step out of the comfort of routine, remain open to unfamiliar experiences, and say yes more often to invitations that broaden your world. It could be extremely difficult and even awkward at the start, but it only gets easier from then on.
Newton said it best: an object in motion tends to stay in motion. When you remain stationary, your exposure to chance is largely limited to the people, ideas and environments you already know. Meeting new people and forming meaningful relationships can expand that exposure by connecting you to entirely different communities and possibilities.
That exposure also compounds with each person you meet, as you get connected to their own network of people. (provided you are the kind of person others are willing to vouch for).
Even then, exposure alone is insufficient. You can encounter the right person, idea or opportunity and still fail to recognise its significance. Motion creates the collision, but preparation allows you to understand its value. Judgment determines whether you should act, and competence determines what you can make of it once you do.
You may not be able to command luck itself. But you can sure as heck stop waiting for it while sitting still.
Our writer Kaywen Z welcomes feedback at zkaywen@gmail.com (My way of capturing luck – he says!)
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