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Good luck is something you make; bad luck is something you endure.
Successful people share many traits, and success provides a roadmap for others to follow. It's often that straightforward.
You've probably heard this advice before - draft a personal mission statement. Doing so will naturally lead you to ponder life's big questions and set goals. With some clarity, your mind begins to focus on what's necessary to leave your mark and achieve your objectives. In this sense, luck is something you engineer through proactive behavior. Being proactive means having a clear purpose and taking steps that move you towards your goals. This approach doesn't guarantee you won't face setbacks, but it's a common thread among all successful entrepreneurs. Reflecting on my life, I see this pattern echoed in every business success book and biography I've encountered.
Confessions:
Do you carry regrets from past actions? Moments that have left a lasting impression or "scarred" your brain? Maybe times when you didn't behave as you should have or missed an opportunity? We all have these moments. Here's where I'm going with this:
I recall a time at university when I was a broke student. I saw a brand new Mercedes in the student parking lot. With friends around me, I loudly remarked, "F*ck, wouldn't it be nice if my mommy and daddy had the money to buy me a car like that. Some people are just so lucky." My tone was dripping with judgment, jealousy, and bitterness. Then, I noticed the window was down; someone inside had heard me. Embarrassed, I turned away but kept my head high to save face. That memory, of being a jealous loser, haunts me like a mental scar.
Another incident was when I was a custodial worker, and my boss reprimanded me over taking a small piece of leftover toilet paper home. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "You think you're a big boss, but one day I'll be somebody, and you'll look like a nobody to me. I quit." And I walked out. That memory casts me in a somewhat positive light; I stood up for myself.
Looking back over the decades, two truths stand out:
This is the essence of my post. Having lived long enough to reflect over decades, I can share what has worked for me and what I've observed in successful entrepreneurs, including world-famous billionaires. My life's trajectory has been astonishingly quick, and I believe it stems from common, replicable strategies. This is why I'm convinced that good luck is something you make, and bad luck is something you endure. I've had my share of bad luck too - epic, ongoing challenges. Bad luck is just something you have to deal with.
So, what's the blueprint for making good luck?
My most significant success came when I shifted my focus from what I wanted to what others needed.
After listening to 300 hours of "self-help" audiobooks, 3 times! during my long commutes almost two decades ago, I realized it's not about me. The world doesn't care about my desires; it cares about my contributions. And it rewards me only based on my contributions. Turns out, the world is very generous.
Rules for Making Good Luck:
That's it folks. Hope you find this helpful.
Post your thoughts below.
Successful people share many traits, and success provides a roadmap for others to follow. It's often that straightforward.
You've probably heard this advice before - draft a personal mission statement. Doing so will naturally lead you to ponder life's big questions and set goals. With some clarity, your mind begins to focus on what's necessary to leave your mark and achieve your objectives. In this sense, luck is something you engineer through proactive behavior. Being proactive means having a clear purpose and taking steps that move you towards your goals. This approach doesn't guarantee you won't face setbacks, but it's a common thread among all successful entrepreneurs. Reflecting on my life, I see this pattern echoed in every business success book and biography I've encountered.
Confessions:
Do you carry regrets from past actions? Moments that have left a lasting impression or "scarred" your brain? Maybe times when you didn't behave as you should have or missed an opportunity? We all have these moments. Here's where I'm going with this:
I recall a time at university when I was a broke student. I saw a brand new Mercedes in the student parking lot. With friends around me, I loudly remarked, "F*ck, wouldn't it be nice if my mommy and daddy had the money to buy me a car like that. Some people are just so lucky." My tone was dripping with judgment, jealousy, and bitterness. Then, I noticed the window was down; someone inside had heard me. Embarrassed, I turned away but kept my head high to save face. That memory, of being a jealous loser, haunts me like a mental scar.
Another incident was when I was a custodial worker, and my boss reprimanded me over taking a small piece of leftover toilet paper home. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "You think you're a big boss, but one day I'll be somebody, and you'll look like a nobody to me. I quit." And I walked out. That memory casts me in a somewhat positive light; I stood up for myself.
Looking back over the decades, two truths stand out:
- Chasing money out of jealousy led me down a path of failure and self-doubt.
- Focusing on being genuinely useful by improving myself, led to rapid betterment of my life.
This is the essence of my post. Having lived long enough to reflect over decades, I can share what has worked for me and what I've observed in successful entrepreneurs, including world-famous billionaires. My life's trajectory has been astonishingly quick, and I believe it stems from common, replicable strategies. This is why I'm convinced that good luck is something you make, and bad luck is something you endure. I've had my share of bad luck too - epic, ongoing challenges. Bad luck is just something you have to deal with.
So, what's the blueprint for making good luck?
My most significant success came when I shifted my focus from what I wanted to what others needed.
After listening to 300 hours of "self-help" audiobooks, 3 times! during my long commutes almost two decades ago, I realized it's not about me. The world doesn't care about my desires; it cares about my contributions. And it rewards me only based on my contributions. Turns out, the world is very generous.
Rules for Making Good Luck:
- Think about how you can be useful. Strive to become increasingly useful. This means excellence.
- To be truly useful, you must invent. That's how I ended up in this forum; MJ's book mentioned that an inventor got him to become an entrepreneur, that the two are the same thing. This revelation changed everything for me. I understood that to succeed, I had to invent, and to do that, I had to master something. You need to know the rules before you can break them and create something better.
- Find the intersection of three circles:
- What am I passionate about?
- What could I be the "best in the world" at?
- What could be my "economic engine?"Spend your undivided attention there. If you don't know the answer, keep thinking, trying, and striving to find it as long as it takes.
- Accept that you cannot succeed without failing. If you accept that you are an inventor, you must also accept that whatever you are doing hasn't yet been done. There is no blueprint or checklist, and you'll stumble. I can attest that I've failed more times than I've succeeded by a factor of 10x. Each failure brought me closer to being more useful in life.
- Clear thinking comes from a clean life.You must have clear thinking to invent things. Your brain cannot be clear if your life is "dirty." Partying, excessive sex, drinking, doing drugs, the "play hard, work hard" philosophy is a misnomer. If you have a personal mission statement, and it's clear - you will not want to waste time. You will value clear thinking above all else.
- Sleep is most important. Create conditions for amazing sleep.
- Diet is the runner-up. It gives you health, energy, and longevity. Study how you feel post-meal and adjust accordingly. Use a 3x3x3 rule - how do you feel 3 minutes, 3 hours, and if you were to eat this for 3 years every day on repeat - how would you look and feel after 3 years of this?
- Fitness. Humans perform best when moving. Lift weights, do cardio, no excuses.
- Life is a collection of moments. If you feel stressed, is it because of something you think will happen or something that has already happened? How about right now - are things OK? If you're OK with this moment, you're being present. For me, this is meditation.
That's it folks. Hope you find this helpful.
Post your thoughts below.
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