Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May your endeavors, both business and personal, be as successful as you hope for them to be. That said, luck isn’t an intangible resource that is allocated randomly among individuals as the fates allow; it is an illusion. In reality, luck comes to those that are willing to be daring and take risks—attributes often associated with strong entrepreneurs.
The Roman philosopher Seneca stated that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” So, with all of the St. Patrick’s Day talk of luck, I’d like to share with you a few tricks to ensure that the metaphorical dice fall in your favor
Visualize your success.
Improving outcomes for yourself, in both business and life, starts with imagining what success looks like and planning steps toward this goal. Of course, your goal shouldn’t be a static thing; this leads to tunnel vision and, in the case of managing a business, prevents you from being agile. However, if you imagine your own behavior that leads to achieving these goals—from focused professionalism to effortless charisma—it’ll be easier to make that a reality. Furthermore, make a list of steps you can take to work toward this goal, even if the steps are as small as a change in attitude.
Narrow your focus.
When it comes to planning these goals, focus on only a few things. Having ambitions is good, but spreading yourself too thin can hurt your prospects in the long term. This also applies to business ventures—what niche do you want your business to fill? What problem are you looking to solve? If you can come up with too many answers, it may be time to narrow your focus and establish one thing that your business does particularly well.
Keep learning.
Part of maturing and adapting is realizing that, no matter how much work you put into your business, industry, or even hobbies, there will always be more to discover. Learning takes many forms, and you should always be aware of opportunities to learn in your daily life. Explore different podcasts or films, or look into reading material relevant to your interests. Even taking trips to places you’ve never been can change your perspective and give you the bit of extra insight you need to keep growing as an individual.
Perhaps most importantly, don’t view learning as something to be done time to time. Strive to learn a little every day, regardless of how this is accomplished.
Network.
This is similar in spirit to continuous learning and no less important; quite often, personal and business prospects are about who you know. Make an effort to make more connections and reforge old ones that may have fallen by the wayside. Even if you consider yourself to be an introverted individual, make an effort to go outside of your comfort zone and attend events relevant to areas that you’re interested in.
Seize opportunities.
As with Seneca’s quote above, part of luck is seeing opportunities and taking them, with a healthy dose of expertise to ensure your success. With opportunity comes risk, but that’s where preparation comes in.
They say that “good things come to those who wait,” but there’s nothing gained in a life spent waiting. Instead, search for your own luck, and be prepared to work hard to take advantage of nascent opportunities and find success. It’s not as easy of a solution as the Blarney Stone or four leaf clover, but at least you’re spared the tedium of combing through plants and kissing rocks.