How to create good luck

“Oh you are off on holiday again, aren’t you lucky” 

If you are someone who has worked hard and experienced a bit of success over the years you will have no doubt have heard a statement like this (and found it infuriating). Although it may have been about a car, house, job, relationship. Whatever the subject, if it’s something you have given a whole heap of hard work, effort and sacrifice for, no doubt you will be pretty pissed off that someone puts it down to “good luck”

My response to such statements is sometimes “No, walking down the street and finding a £20 note on the pavement is good luck, I’ve worked bloody hard for . . . . (insert nice thing here)”

Other times, I cannot be bothered to explain myself, in those situations I will just smile and say “yes, lucky me”. With some people it’s not even worth trying to explain, they don’t want to put the work in, it’s easier for them to just think that magical things happen to “Lucky” people

If you are reading this and think I’m talking total nonsense and believe that you don’t ever receive good luck and others do, then I’m here to help

That used to be me, I could not comprehend why bad things happened to me and good things happened to others. Through my eyes life was extremely unfair, I was constantly plagued by “bad luck”

In 2008 I met a guy who was “Lucky”, his name was Dave, he was very successful, owned a pub, was involved in a few other businesses, drove a nice car, went on nice holidays multiple times a year. Yep, life was pretty good for Dave, “alright for some I thought”

One day I decided to ask him how he did it? Why was he so “Lucky?”

His response sounded extremely Woo and a bit fluffy to me. He said it was down to good karma, he said it was by doing the right thing CONSISTENTLY. I told him that I did good things now and then but rarely saw the gains

He then told me that it was like a snowball effect, it starts very slowly and takes time to gain momentum. At times whilst building up, it can seem futile, it can appear that your time is being wasted . . . 

BUT, once the snowball started to build up speed, it got bigger and went faster, which then caused it to get even bigger and continue to go even faster. This process would continue . . . provided you continue to fuel it with the thing that got it started in the first place

This really stuck with me, I recognised that he had told me something profound. I was extremely confused as to why it did not apply to me though?

That was until 2010, yes two whole years later, I could see that my idea of doing the right thing had been far away from reality. Once I had realised this, I threw all my energy and effort into acting in a positive and productive manner

Sure enough the snow ball started to form, good things started to happen. It did not however bring me instant riches. I was being a good person, doing good things, being a positive addition to society, so why did I not have instant riches? I wanted riches, dammit, I deserved them!

This is when I learned the second part of the process. Doing the right thing and being a good person will bring good karma, good things will happen (bad things will still happen to but its generally weighted toward the positive)

It’s unlikely that just being a good person will bring you material wealth (it may, but it is no way a certainty). Therefore, I decided to apply these same principles to something that would bring me material benefits, after all, I wanted to be “Lucky”

I started using the principle of karma in business, working extremely hard, staying extremely consistent. Doing the right thing does not always look like it’s going to bring in the best return in the short term, that’s because often it won’t. By cutting corners and taking advantage of others you can often gain more money in the short term

I’m not going to lie, at times, this path has been a temptation . . . 

But I would always go back to what Dave told me in 2008, for the snowball to grow and keep building speed and momentum – “You need to keep feeding it with the thing that got it started”

Cutting corners and ripping people off was not it

If you speak to successful entrepreneurs and ask the following questions;

1. Do you often work without the certainty of if you will even get paid for what you are doing?
2. Have you ever invested everything you have earned, to make something achievable?
3. Have you ever consistently worked 18-hour days? (Without knowing if you are going to get paid)

I will bet that most “Lucky” people will answer yes to all these questions. 

If, however, you ask the same questions to those who seem to never have any luck, it will be a far lower percentage

By being consistent, working hard and building something for the long term (doing the next right thing), you will put yourself in the path of “good luck”. By putting yourself in the way of it, over time, good things will start to happen. Then you can start to get really pissed off with people telling you how “Lucky” you are!

If you saw the title of this blog and were expecting to see a quick fix you are probably feeling disappointed. I understanded that, that’s where I would have been between 2008-2010 . . . that is the reason the snowball would never get big enough to get started though

Hope that’s helpful to you, let me know your thoughts in the comments? It’s always good to hear from a different perspective?

Thanks for reading

George B