Lucky people are also attentive people - this has been argued about for a while now. However, I’ll contend that lucky people are also ones with more self-interest than most, and the drive to actively increase their chances of good fortune. I’m one of those who believe that truly lucky people act on the information being fed to them in a way that nudges the forces of the world into helping them get to where they want to be.
Making your own luck is easier in 2009. This year made us follow people more closely thanks to various virtual networks, in both our personal and professional lives. The nuances of a person’s personality that you usually only see when you meet someone in person are now almost graphically public. Follow the people you like, the people you’re inspired by, and the people you admire, and in the end your day’s enriched in a way that was not possible even a year ago. The number of people sharing their lives online has hit critical mass; follow the right people and increase serendipity.
I was at an event recently hosted by Om Malik (@om) where we talked about (among other things) serendipity in the newer social networks that are seeing massive adoption by the general public. I spoke up towards the end and mentioned that there are people who actively increase their chances of being lucky by leveraging these platforms. I also mentioned that as the people writing social software, we should do more to educate people on deriving value out of their network. While most people implicitly understand after a few days of use the power of having an always-on network of friends and colleagues, I believe there are definitely chances for spreading the word up front.
I feel that another important point deserves mention: most of the luck that a person derives out of constant connectedness is more due to how well they know the people in their network’s sub-networks, than the off chance that someone will mention something out of the blue that the person’s interested in. For example, you increase your chances of getting free concert tickets by actively building a presence in a network’s existing music subnet over time and establishing lasting relationships, than by following the artist directly. Right?
You emote online, and people listen. Often, someone will reply with something that changes that relationship’s status quo, regardless of that reply’s positivity or negativity. These constant shifts in the way you perceive your network and vice versa is what I’ll claim promotes serendipity within those networks. When you constantly find out new things about the interesting people you’re connected with, and you have the drive to act on the information you receive, you’re constantly increasing the chances that different worlds will intersect and interesting things happen more and more.