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Comment by thisisit | Hacker News Reader

I really doubt you can get rich by not being lucky. I was like Naval and thought many of my achievements were due to sheer hard work. And then I read this article about luck:

http://nautil.us/blog/-the-key-to-good-luck-is-an-open-mind

And I got the book mentioned in the article - The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman.

One of the exercises in the book is to think over how things have unfolded in your life - what would have happened if you took left inside of right when you met your partner or got a great job? And when I thought it over, there has been some element of luck involved. At my first job I wasn't supposed to be there for an interview but went along with a roommate as I had nothing better to do.

Now I believe sure you can work hard and do most of the work in Naval's list but all of it will ensure you are lucky when you run into one of the long term people in a long term industry. And everything will fall in place.

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I've always had a theory that there are some variable luck factors that we can control.

Meeting driven, creative and important people is a huge multiplier for luck. It, perhaps more than anything I've done, has changed my life for the better.

I had a solid job in Mobile, AL working for an ad agency. Although, it felt isolating from the tech world. To combat that I started a publication interviewing designers and entrepreneurs just to stay plugged into the community.

So much good has come from a couple years and dozens of interviews. I met a co-founder, was paid to host a similar podcast and have made a ton of friends around the world. Not to mention, I might not be working as a designer had I never started doing interviews.

Give yourself opportunities to be lucky.

> To combat that I started a publication interviewing designers and entrepreneurs just to stay plugged into the community.

> So much good has come from a couple years and dozens of interviews. I met a co-founder, was paid to host a similar podcast and have made a ton of friends around the world. Not to mention, I might not be working as a designer had I never started doing interviews.

This is a really cool idea that makes perfect sense. It's basically a way to get plugged into an ecosystem of effective and interesting people. And everyone loves to talk about themselves, so I'm guessing it wasn't too difficult to find interviewees (at least once you got past the first barrier of being a publication with no history).

How did you get the idea? Did you have any relevant experience prior to starting the interviews and then making a publication out of it?

What do you think might be some less intensive alternatives? Starting a publication is not for everyone.

Appreciate the interest! The idea came from a combination of a few different factors.

I was bored. There were only a handful of designers and no tech people in Mobile. I was (and still am) a big fan of Andrew Warner and Mixergy. I was listening to a show and had this epiphany—what's stopping me from doing something similar?

Nothing.

Sure I couldn't go out and interview Bill Gates. But I had friends that were working on interesting things and started with them. I worked in various editor positions for the school paper in college and had an interest in niche publications. That was about all the prior experience I had.

As for an alternative:

—Make a list of people that you're genuinely interested in. It's helpful if they are in an industry you want to be in.

—Come up with a list of questions you'd like to ask them.

—Find their Twitter handles or email addresses.

—If they live in your city send them a tweet or email saying why you admire them, and ask to buy them a coffee. If not, see if they'd be open to a 15-30-minute call.

—Follow-up with them occasionally.

I have a friend who is about a year into her career as an occupational therapist. Recently she was asking questions about how she could get ahead. The above is what I recommended. I think it's a valuable exercise regardless of career.

Thanks for the response! I like the mindset. Your alternative is a worthwhile suggestion, I will keep that in mind.

Everyone is lucky. We are lucky to have been born. Some of us are "more lucky" than others. It all depends on how you wanna measure lucky. I think the idea that most of these articles are trying to drive home is that we shouldn't depend on ALL LUCK alone. But rather craft a deliberate plan to achieve whatever we wish to. Whatever the steps that lead to our dreams, there will always be an element of luck.

Luck Factor link (its only 5 pages and interesting): http://richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf

We have all these ideals about hard work but in reality the economy is largely a casino. With crippling student debt most young people have been hamstrung from the gate. Milleneals don't generate wealth like boomers because most milleneals were effectively born into indentured servitude with the exploitation over education. Sure you could try to go without a degree in 2017 but good luck getting your foot in the door to anything today without education.

Unethical idea that just struck me -- why not just flee the country?

You can make a living as an english teacher and translator in A LOT of places.

> why not just flee the country?

For the same reasons people flee into the US from all over the world.

You still have things pretty well. Sure they are getting worse, and it's worth fighting that process, but fleeing is not a great option.

    - Student debt
    - Healthcare 
    - Housing
    - ?

If you can’t find work, create your own. Worked for me and I’ve been at it happily for a few years now. Best decision ever made.

What do you do if you don't mine me asking?

What is luck really?

Determination + Opportunity = Luck

+ randomness

Determination * (Opportunity/randomness) = Luck

That's not how statistics works. "At my first job I wasn't supposed to be there for an interview but went along..." doesn't mean if you passed on this and got the next job you would be any worse or better off. Luck literally means random chance, which would mean that if you didn't take this job it would have changed your outcome vs. all the other possible outcomes if you passed on it.

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