025 | The Endless Pot of Honey

Hey friends,

I’m sending today’s blogletter to 595 of you incredible humans. I’ve also hit 394 subscribers on YouTube. For me, this is insane. Thanks a million.

But now let’s talk about luck.

We often like to tell ourselves ‘oh, I just got lucky’ or we say, ‘but that’s because they got lucky’. But if we consider what is luck and how one can increase one’s chance for luck events — we’ll soon realise that we can all get lucky and it’s not rocket science.

There are four types of luck and all, but one can be cultivated through our efforts.

I was first introduced to these four types of luck in Marc Andreessen’s archived blog and also in the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

1. Dumb luck (random)

This is purely accidental luck.

The type of luck that occurs because you were in the right place at the right time. For example, this is like getting a free upgrade to a business class seat. It’s the kind of luck that comes from no effort of your own.

This cannot be cultivated. Unless you have some superhuman strengths.

2. Luck favours the go-getters (repeated action)

Hustle until you stumble into luck events.

Luck that comes from activity. The very act of doing something makes you more likely to stumble into luck.

For example, let’s say discovering a million-dollar idea or building a unicorn is your idea for a ‘lucky event’. How would you discover this one idea or build a unicorn if you weren’t prepared to action 100 other ideas until you find the one?

The take-home here is therefore to do something. Try things. Stop over-analysing, thinking, and endlessly planning — just take action.

3. Luck favours the prepared mind (preparation)

Prepare the mind and be sensitive to chances others miss.

I think this one’s a little tough. You have to be a very good critical-thinker and have great foresight. This is the type of luck that comes from recognising the breakthrough opportunities before anyone else and latching onto them.

It will manifest from building a unique perspective. This takes time and experience — you will need specific knowledge about a certain area, advantageous insights usually from experience, and finally your own skill/ability in the subject area.

If you have a prepared mind, you will recognise ‘lucky events’ because of your unique perspective and therefore take them.

4. Extreme people make luck ubiquitous (unique action)

Become the best at what you do. Luck becomes your destiny.

Essentially strive to have deep, well-rounded interests or skills. Use this to build a brand or take extreme action. You will cause luck.

This might sound quite similar to luck type 3 whereby ‘lucky events’ favours the prepared mind with a unique perspective. But for type 3 luck, you took action when the lucky opportunity appeared. With type 4 luck, the very actions you’ve taken or the brand you’ve built for yourself causes ‘lucky events’.

As Naval says in his podcast:

Build your character and your reputation so that eventually, you’ll be able to take advantage of opportunities that other people may characterise as lucky but for you, it wouldn’t feel that way.

A great example of this would be Warren Buffet. He gets offered deals, gets to buy companies, and do things that other people can’t just because of his reputation.

Why the honey? (Summary)

Understanding how luck can essentially be manufactured through our efforts allows us to always have with us an endless pot of honey.

You can get ‘lucky’ quite feasibly, you just have to be continuously putting yourself out there, always be prepared to jump onto any signs of a breakthrough, and don’t fear being unique — this gives you an unmatched vantage point eventually.

This Week’s Quote 🎯

Failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. — The Four, Scott Galloway

This Week’s Recommendation 🚀

Article 🗞 — From productivity porn to mindful productivity

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I just discovered the Ness Labs blog recently and it’s an incredible read. They focus on delivering ‘neuroscience-based insights’. Here’s an article that I enjoyed on why our desire to be more productive can turn into a harmful addiction. A phenomenon they call, productivity porn.

This Week’s Video 🎬

This Week’s Favourite Tweet 🐦

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

That’s all for this week — be safe, be happy!

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