Create Your Own Luck

How do you work hard and create your own luck? The working hard part should be obvious. It means being the best you can be at whatever job you happen to be doing, whether it is writing complicated software or flipping a hamburger. Producing a good work product is a good first step but is not sufficient for advancing a career. That is where creating your own luck comes in. Both tends to be related to one another.

Forbes has a pretty good article about creating your own luck. Boiled down to its essentials creating luck means being aware of opportunities when they come your way and being prepared to seize them as soon as possible. Better yet, you should constantly seek out opportunities. What others call luck you would call just being aware.

Another secret to creating luck is to practice goodness and virtue. In a business context this means practicing things like communicating with your customers, finding out what they want, and being proactive in fixing any problems that might arise. This in turn creates good will, proves to your customers that your work or business has value, and demonstrates loyalty. In this way you build up a good business reputation and people who can offer good opportunities will think of you first when they arise.

Finally you should balance focus with opportunism. There is a danger of getting too spread out. Try to focus on your core competencies, but also be prepared to take risks when opportunity comes your way.

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Originally posted on LinkedIn Pulse...