The Four Kinds of Luck: How To Make A Habit Of “Getting Lucky”
“In 1,000 parallel universes, you want to be wealthy in 999 of them”
The last question Guy Raz asks entrepreneurs on his podcast, How I Built This is this: “How much do you think your success is because of luck and how much of it is hard work?”
Guests on the show typically answer with a percentage that’s divided up between the two. Some will even go deeper into the kinds of things that made them lucky.
No matter what you’re pursuing, luck plays a role. But most people don’t know that there are different kinds of luck.
Some luck you have no control over… but others you can influence with your actions.
If you want to get rich, you need to learn to capture luck instead of waiting around for it.
The Four Kinds of Luck
In 1978, Dr. James H. Austin wrote Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty. In his book, the neurologist —and Zen Buddhist— explained the roles of luck, chance, and serendipity in medical research, and outlines what we know today as the four kinds of luck.
Austin reduces each type of “chance” (the word Austin uses for luck) to the kind of work you must do to find it, and your subsequent “sensory reception” of the event.
Here are the four different kinds of luck, and how you can capture them:
1. Blind Luck
“Chance I is completely impersonal; you can’t influence it.” - Dr. James H. Austin
This is the kind of luck you’re most familiar with.
Picture a miracle, an “Act of God,” or winning the lottery. All of these events arrive entirely out of the blue, and with little to no action on your part. They’re something to celebrate, but definitely not a moment to count on.
Blind luck will slip in and out of the other types of luck, so it’s essential to keep an eye out for it.
How to get blind luck on your side
You can’t. Just make sure you don’t squander it if it strikes you. If you win the lottery, invest the money in functional businesses instead of spending it on sports cars and yachts.
2. Luck From Motion
“Chance II favors those who have a persistent curiosity about many things coupled with an energetic willingness to experiment and explore.” - Dr. James H. Austin
The second type of luck comes from constant action.
The more stuff you create, the more articles you write, the more people you engage with - the better the chance that the right person notices what you’re doing at the right time and gives you a boost.
Naval Ravikant writes about this kind of luck on his blog:
“[This is] luck that comes through persistence, hard work, hustle, motion. Which is when you’re running around creating lots of opportunities, you’re generating a lot of energy, you’re doing a lot of things, lots of things will get stirred up in the dust.”
Of the four kinds of luck, this is probably the most accessible to you right now. For example, I’ve gotten lucky recently with a few viral tweets that have added hundreds of people to my newsletter list.
Like this one:
Is the fact that this went viral just blind luck? No, because I tweet every day, multiple times a day. And I add a newsletter subscription link to viral tweets to make sure I get newsletter subs from those tweets.
This is luck from motion. The more I tweet, the better chance I have of getting lucky.
Of course, Austin also argues we must avoid “waste motion.” This is the act of working for work’s sake when it’s depleting your resources and not changing your outcome. This is rarely a factor when you’re first starting, as more often, the more work you put in, the more you learn.
How to get Luck From Motion on your side
Hustle!
If you create content, businesses, or media around things you’re interested in, you can generate luck from motion. So, make more things, meet more people, and throw more stuff against the wall to see what sticks.
And remember, inaction is a sure way to get “unlucky.”
“Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”
3. Luck In Preparation
“Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.” - Dr. James H. Austin
If you have specific knowledge in your field through years of experience, you know what works and what doesn’t far better than someone relatively new to your domain.
That recognition is key to the third type of luck: luck in preparation.
Ravikant expands on this type of luck on his blog:
“You become very good at spotting luck. If you are very skilled in a field, you will notice when a lucky break happens in that field. When other people who aren’t attuned to it won’t notice. So you become sensitive to luck and that’s through skill and knowledge and work.”
For example, say you are a filmmaker and come across a book that would make an excellent film. You know it would make a great movie because you’ve made ones like this before. And further, you know exactly who you could sell it to who would be very interested in it.
Anyone else who reads the book won’t have the experience or specific knowledge to turn it into a great movie, but you do. That’s luck in preparation.
As another example, if you understood cryptography in the early 2010s, perhaps you could have spotted the opportunity in the currency Bitcoin.
You could have witnessed this technological breakthrough in real-time. And then, because you understood the consequences of such a currency, loaded up on it for a few cents. Indeed, you’d be rich right now (and many who did, are!).
How To Get Luck From Preparation On Your Side
Build specific knowledge and experience in your field.
Then, keep an eye out for positive Black Swans (rare events) happening in your area of expertise. Keep up with industry happenings, network with others at your level, and if you spot an opportunity that looks promising, follow up relentlessly.
“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.”
4. Luck Unique To You
“Chance IV favors those with distinctive, if not eccentric hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors.” - Dr. James H. Austin
As you edge closer and closer to expert status, you’ll make a name for yourself because of how you operate.
Maybe your personality is friendly and great to work with. Or, perhaps you’re super intense but always get the job done, no matter the hour. These “distinctive” traits with help your reputation and brand grow over time.
Your reputation is like a magnet that is getting stronger. As you build a satisfied customer base, you’ll pull in more and more business from further away. You’ll also get closer and closer to becoming the “best” in the world at what you do.
Eventually, a career-changing client - who likes who you are and your view of the world - will hire you for a job only you can do. Voilà: there’s your good luck.
Here’s how Ravikant describes luck unique to you:
“Then the last kind of luck is the weirdest, hardest kind. But that’s what we want to talk about. Which is where you build a unique character, a unique brand, a unique mindset, where then luck finds you.”
Capturing this kind of luck can seem impossible to envision at the start because you have to become the best at something. Becoming the best at something is hard to do, but possible if you:
“Keep redefining what you do until this is true.” - Naval Ravikant
You need to build a skill stack unique to you. The more skills you stack, the more unique your offering, and the better chance you have to become the “best” at something.
How To Get Luck Unique To You On Your Side
Be authentic!
Wealest as a blog exists because I’m naturally interested in writing, mental models, and wealth creation. I followed my passions and built something out of it. Who knows what kind of luck will strike because of the work I’ve put in and the database I’ve created.
Doggedly pursue what interests you and build skills in those spaces. You’ll become the best in the world because you’re the only one who does what you do.
“You do not want to compete, you want to be a market of one.”
Now, go get lucky.
Special thanks to Emma Cranston, Kristen Ferguson, and Anjana Paul for their help and edits.
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ARTICLE SOURCES:
Read Naval Ravikant's post on luck here: https://nav.al/money-luck
Marc Andreessen also has a great post about luck here: https://pmarchive.com/luck_and_the_entrepreneur.html