Do you believe in luck? I believe there are two ways of approaching it: luck as a mindset (ie, when people feel lucky, they are lucky), and luck as the product of practical steps, or as Stoic philosopher Seneca said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Stanford engineering school professor Tina Seelig subscribes to the latter. Her TED talk for entrepreneurs is about seeing luck as a constantly blowing wind rather than an isolated lightning strike. Instead of trying to bottle lightning you can build sails to capture the winds of luck, meanwhile having a sit down to recover from all the metaphors being slung your way.
Seelig’s advice on tapping into luck is practical: be prepared to take risks with the fearlessness you had as a child. Each risk opens up a new opportunity. She also highlights the value of relationships and showing appreciation to the people who help you because folks remember those who were nasty to them and those who were nice.
Finally, she talks about developing an eye for opportunity and learning to take something that, at first glance, seems worthless or broken and ask: How can I make this work?
