According to the dictionary, luck is “Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions” and the more popular definition is “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. Unsurprisingly, we don’t like either of these definitions! Instead we define luck as “good fortune that goes to people who don’t need it”. Why? Well once you know how luck works you’ll adjust your personality to make it come your way. For fun we’re going to provide a step-by-step luck creation machine.
Lucky to Be Alive
Before we begin, we’ll point out the obvious. Anyone reading this is lucky to be alive. Millions of people died which diminished the gene pool. There was a one in a billion chance for you to be alive today (probably lower). The chances of being alive in the 21st century? A miracle. The chances of being born into a 1st world country? Another miracle. And. The chances of finding this blog? Another miracle! (half joking)
We’re sure you’ve all heard this before and we think the one additional item is the amount of information available to you. That is hands down the most critical change today versus 100 years ago. If someone creates a revolutionary new product, you’ll likely hear about it within a year (at the latest). Just ~30 years ago, information was delivered extremely slowly (snail mail) and new information took years to become well known around the globe. Now? That could happen in five seconds.
With the invention of the Internet, you can gain access to information written by investors, billionaires, millionaires, athletes, doctors, etc. While it is up to you to discern which information is most valuable, the availability is meaningful. Remember, one of the primary reasons for the USA being where it is today? Information. Guns versus Bows & Arrows. Therefore, access to information helps level the playing field for anyone living in the 21st century. There are no excuses in the 21st century because the necessary information is available.
“Luck: Good fortune that goes to people who don’t need it”
Think about it for a second. Have you ever met a “lucky” person who needed the luck in the first place? Unlikely. Even the broke folk who win the lottery? They lose it quickly! The luckiest people seem to never need the luck in the first place. So we have our hint on how to obtain luck: When you no longer need it, you’ll receive it. As a bonus note? The reverse is also true.
The Corporate Guy: We know, you’re probably questioning our definition already so we’ll ask you to think about your past and see if it’s true. Have you noticed that the happy guy who isn’t interested in moving up is typically the one who does move up? Have you noticed that the same guy has no problems with being laid off yet is never laid off (ever?). Have you noticed the reverse? A guy who is desperately in need of the job/career gets laid off. Or. The guy who recently took a large mortgage is typically the same guy to get cut first? We’ve noticed as well.
Now, we’re not saying you’ll simply move up the ladder by doing nothing the real key seems to be stress. They are called “happy go lucky” for a reason not “unhappy stop lucky”. Luck seems to favor those that are in a relaxed state and we’d wager it has more to do with 1) performance and 2) mood/demeanor. What person works better with massive amounts of stress hanging over his head all the time (recall the last time someone stood staring over your shoulder as you tried to work)? What person would promote a guy who is constantly negative all of the time? You all know the answer. No one. At the end of the day work is about performance and more importantly people management as you move up the chain and the “Happy Go Lucky” guy is typically the better fit 99 times out of 100.
Dating: Another fun one. Always common for ex-girlfriends or flings to show up right around when you’re in a new relationship. Similarly, once you’ve stopped partying hard for a while and simply go out to have fun here and there your ability to meet new people goes through the roof. Luck? Or the creation of luck? We’ll go ahead and say you’ve created luck. You no longer need social validation and that improves your overall demeanor and it is beyond easy for you to strike up conversations while sober in a night club or a grocery store. No difference to you.
Not good enough? Think about all of the guys you know who tend to do well with women. Are they constantly looking for the next “trick” to get girls? Are they willing to give up their entire career or business to move to a third world country just to meet girls who are 0.5 points better on the same old 1-10 scale? Are they going out incessantly to get “better”? Of course not. Unlike the guys who are faking the actions of successful, relaxed and confident men… They already have these qualities so it doesn’t need to be faked. Once again. Once you don’t need the validation, opportunities begin to show up on your door-step.
Money: This is what you’re here for. Good ole’ money luck. If you’re reading a blog called Wall Street Playboys and have no interest in becoming a multi-millionaire… we have no idea how you’ve stumbled upon this website. That said, money luck requires the most mental and physical control. If you don’t need it, you’ll stumble on it several times over the course of 10+ years. In other words, “the rich get richer”, a rare saying we 100% agree with.
Now to prove our point, have you noticed that large opportunities seem to land in front of people with money first? Have you noticed that people who are happy with what they have tend to stumble upon more ways to make even *more* money without needing it? Well we have too. The reason is simple really… when you don’t need to make more money you value your time. By valuing your time more? The options weed themselves out for you. Instead of working for a $100 a hour when you were young, you’re able to say no and go out to lunch with someone else as a favor instead (doesn’t make economical sense but makes sense from a utility maximization sense).
Step by Step on How to Create Luck
On to the good stuff. Before we begin, we’re not saying you’ll stumble upon *Good Luck* by sitting at home doing nothing. The only people who will benefit from doing nothing at all? Those set up for generational wealth (see lucky to be alive!). Instead, we’ll go ahead and give you the step by step to creating luck from scratch! After all who wants to work hard when this crazy game of life can throw money at you for simply having a good time.
Step 1 – Get Financially Stable: It is practically impossible to be happy go lucky when you’re broke. Rare specimens can turn it around in terrible situations (think Trump in the 90s). That said, we’d focus on creating a nice financial buffer before trying the more extreme versions of luck creation. A decent buffer is somewhere around 2x annual living expenses. You’ll become much less tense knowing that a layoff won’t leave you on the Streets.
Step 2 – Keep on the Path: The biggest way to *destroy* luck? Go down multiple paths at the same time. You see, for some reason luck favors people who are unrelenting and hard headed. If you’ve decided to go down the sales path it does not make sense to jump into a coding boot camp. In addition, if you’ve decided to go into Technology please avoid starting a real estate company. So on and so forth. You’re allowed to choose *two* ways to earn an income. You’ll focus on these two paths (no more) until luck comes your way.
There are a million ways to get rich. Just don’t look at the ones unrelated to you. Luck is distributed equally according to our advanced calculations (we’ve done none). If you spend 10 years on one path you’re more likely to get lucky than if you were to spend 2 years on five different paths. Keep searching and each street, avenue or freeway will have at least one pot of gold. Much harder to find if you’re constantly looking at the paths unrelated to you (wasting valuable time!)
Step 3 – Learn to Laugh at Yourself: The second biggest way to *destroy* luck? Taking everything seriously. You already know the type. Those guys who are constantly stressed out about the next Career move, the next investment, the recent price in XYZ stock that they were “going to invest in but forgot”. So on and so forth. Sure Steve Jobs and others make billions and take everything seriously… If that’s the life you want to live, this blog probably isn’t for you. Who would enjoy going through life taking every single detail seriously when he could get his pot of gold… blow a good chunk of it in a party infused flame of glory… only to have no way of spending it all anyway! We’re hoping you’re in the second group otherwise you’re probably not fun to hang out with anyway. The feeling of embarrassment is for people who take themselves far too seriously.
Step 4 – Identify Trends: As stated earlier the more popular definition of luck is “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. The problem is that we’re discounting your ability to perceive the future. Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that live streaming will displace “news reports”? Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that mid-teir education systems will go the way of the dinosaur after being displaced by online resources? Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that sales is harder to automate when compared to book keeping? It sure doesn’t. Your job is to identify trends and ideally see an inflection point ~5-10 years out. This gives you a full five years to live in the abyss staring at an opportunity that no one sees until it is too late for your competition to catch up.
Step 5 – Hang Out With Lucky People: In the “48 Laws of Power” the Book recommends avoiding the “Unhappy and Unlucky”. The best way to do this is to find lucky and happy people. Importantly, if you’re finding that people are unwilling to hang out with you… Well guess what that means? You’re likely unhappy or unlucky. And. If you’re either one of them, you’re likely to be both soon! Before it’s too late, try and mirror the traits of the happy and lucky (women are generally bubbly and happy for a reason, they know how good luck works!)… Sure enough you’ll be one of the people everyone wants to hang around for good luck. Who knows, they may even rub your head for good luck in the future (joke).
Step 6 – Do Not Hope or Wish For Luck: This is the last item on the “avoidance list”. By wishing for luck you’ll guarantee it won’t happen. Luck isn’t interested in people who need it (see our definition). Luck is only interested in people who don’t have a care for it. So you switched affiliate offers the week before it dried up? Laugh at the stroke of luck and have a shot of tequilla. Had an infographic go viral that results in a one day windfall of 5 figures? Go ahead and blow $1,000 at the wine bar and hand out free drinks to everyone in sight… say nothing about your good fortune. Luck favors those that are willing to lose it all and by blowing some of it you’re likely creating more of it anyway. Just don’t hope or wish for it otherwise the music changes from James Brown to the Jaws Theme song.
Step 7 – Stay in the Flow of Money Luck: The best way to get money luck? Be there when it is present. No we don’t mean rap videos, we mean the transactional nature of money. When large amounts of money are moving around, someone is typically being paid to facilitate the transaction (make the market). Imagine owning just a piece of something as popular as Coinbase. You can create a large amount of money and be exposed to multiple currencies all at the same time. If you don’t believe in staying within the flow of money just ask a payment services company (Paypal, Visa, Coinbase, ADP etc.), a major bank or a high end real estate agent.
Step 8 – Create a Stress Free Life: As your income goes up, your net worth also goes up. This is where the fun balance comes in. Constantly take on more risk so long as your stress never increases. This means you never want to feel like you’re under a lot of pressure (see performance declines) and it means you should enjoy taking on more risk. If you feel uncomfortable clicking buy or levering up… shut the deal down. Luck rarely favors those that are uncomfortable with the risk they took. Notice. The key is that you must feel comfortable with it. That is why many people can take on a lot of risk and sleep like a baby.
Step 9 – Sit Down and Realize Life is Meaningless: If you’ve done all of the items above your luck is likely improving. You’ll get to a point where you “feel” like you’re searching for meaning. Make the mental jump and realize *everything* is meaningless! We’re only going to live for a 100 years or so and none of that valuable time should be wasted on “discovering the meaning of life”. Nobody will remember if you died with $100M, $10M or $0 in the bank. After all, you’re rich already so the only excuse for being unhappy is staring right back at you every single time you step in front of a mirror! The word that describes rich intense unhappy people? Easy. Boring!
Step 10 – Create a Troll/Hobby Website: Create a website entirely made for the laughs since blogging for money is foolish. Somehow it grows despite any effort at all. Change the direction of the blog. Leave an industry you worked in for several years. Write a book on it and give it away for cheap because you’ve already left the sector anyway… So who cares if competition goes up! Good old luck will probably show up somewhere down the line because of this anyway. Name the website WallStreetP…. Wait.
Let us know if you have any other tips for creating luck. If they are serious in nature? They will be deleted because we’ll know you’re lying!
