HOW TO GET LUCKY by Millionaire Simon Squibb (Ted Talk) #Luck #Hack #Entrepreneur
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the concept of luck, asserting it's not solely a matter of chance but can be influenced. They categorize luck into uncontrollable random occurrences and controllable factors, emphasizing that the latter makes up 98% of one's life. To 'hack' luck, they propose three principles: taking risks, embracing fear, and knowing one's destination. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and historical examples to illustrate how persistence and a positive perception of risk can transform one's fortune, ultimately suggesting that luck is a mindset that can be cultivated.
Takeaways
- 🔮 Luck can be influenced: The speaker suggests that only about 2% of one's life is governed by uncontrollable luck, with the remaining 98% being subject to influence and 'hacking'.
- 🚀 Embrace risk-taking: A key principle to increase luck is taking more risks, as it opens up opportunities and leads to learning from failures.
- 💡 Reframe fear: Fear is a natural response to risk, but it can be harnessed as a source of energy and motivation, pushing individuals to prepare and perform better.
- 🎯 Know your destination: Having a clear purpose or destination in life helps in making decisions, planning, and recognizing opportunities that align with one's goals.
- 🤝 Persistence pays off: Persistence is crucial for success, and the speaker emphasizes the importance of continuous effort, even in the face of no immediate response or success.
- 💰 Money as fuel: Money is viewed as a means to an end, not the end itself, and understanding one's true destination helps in determining the 'fuel' needed for the journey.
- 🏹 The power of sales: Sales can be a powerful tool for business growth, and the speaker shares personal experiences of how consistent outreach led to achieving business goals.
- 🤔 Perception of luck: Luck is often a matter of perception, and how one views their experiences can significantly impact their future actions and opportunities.
- 🧗♂️ Overcoming adversity: The speaker's personal story illustrates how overcoming significant challenges can lead to the development of resilience and a stronger foundation for taking risks.
- 📈 Long-term vision: Viewing life as a long game rather than a series of short-term goals helps in staying persistent and focused on the ultimate destination.
- 🌟 Transformative experiences: The speaker suggests that transformative experiences, such as surviving a life-altering event, can shift one's perspective on risk and luck.
Q & A
What is the speaker's main argument about luck?
-The speaker argues that while some aspects of luck are uncontrollable, such as where you are born, the majority of one's life (98%) involves luck that can be influenced and 'hacked' through certain principles.
According to the speaker, what percentage of our lives is influenced by random occurrences of luck?
-The speaker suggests that only about 2% of our lives is influenced by uncontrollable, random occurrences of luck.
What is the first principle the speaker suggests to increase one's chances of luck?
-The first principle is to take a lot of risks, as the speaker believes that the more risks one takes, the luckier they become.
How does the speaker relate risk-taking to success in their personal experience?
-The speaker shares that by taking the risk of bringing someone else in to run their company, they saw the business grow much faster, leading to the realization that taking risks can lead to success.
What is the role of fear in the process of taking risks, as per the speaker?
-The speaker explains that fear is a natural part of taking risks, but it should be embraced as it provides energy, passion, and can lead to satisfaction and success once conquered.
What is the second element the speaker suggests to increase one's chances of luck?
-The second element is knowing your destination, which means having a clear understanding of one's purpose and goals in life.
Why is it important to have a clear destination in life, according to the speaker?
-Having a clear destination helps one to be prepared for the journey, know what resources are needed, and stay focused on the long-term goal, which in turn increases the chances of luck.
What is the third principle the speaker suggests for increasing luck?
-The third principle is persistence, which involves continuing to pursue one's goals even in the face of challenges or lack of immediate success.
How does the speaker describe the relationship between persistence and sales success?
-The speaker illustrates that top salespeople are persistent, reaching out to potential clients multiple times over an extended period, which leads to success in sales.
What is the speaker's personal example of persistence in sales?
-The speaker shares their experience of persistently reaching out to 50 desired clients over nine years, which eventually resulted in all of them becoming clients.
How does the speaker's story of the boy jumping into the river during the Hiroshima bombing illustrate the concept of luck?
-The story shows that what might seem like a risky action (jumping into the water) turned out to be a lucky one due to unforeseen circumstances (the bombing), suggesting that sometimes taking risks can lead to luck.
What does the speaker suggest about the perception of luck?
-The speaker suggests that luck is largely a matter of perception and that one can choose to view life events as lucky, which can lead to a more fortunate life experience.
How does the speaker relate the concept of 'hacking' luck to the stories and principles shared?
-The speaker relates 'hacking' luck to the idea that by understanding and applying the principles of risk-taking, knowing one's destination, and being persistent, one can increase their chances of experiencing good luck.
Outlines
🍀 The Concept of Luck and Its Hackability
The speaker introduces the concept of luck, questioning the audience's perception of their own luck and suggesting that luck can be influenced. They argue against the notion that hard work alone brings luck, instead proposing that taking risks is the key to increasing one's luck. The speaker shares their personal experience of growing a business and how bringing in a talented individual to run it led to greater success. They emphasize that while there is uncontrollable random luck, such as the place of one's birth or unforeseen events like a pandemic, the majority of one's life is subject to controllable luck, which can be influenced by taking risks and learning from failures.
🚀 Embracing Risk and Fear for Enhanced Luck
This paragraph delves into the importance of risk-taking and the role of fear in the journey towards greater luck. The speaker explains that taking risks can lead to more failures, but also to more learning and success. They discuss the misunderstood nature of fear, which can be a powerful motivator when harnessed correctly. The speaker encourages the audience to see fear as an opportunity for growth and to take risks as a means to increase their chances of luck, suggesting that the more risks one takes, the more likely they are to experience luck.
🎯 The Importance of Knowing Your Destination for Luck
The speaker emphasizes the significance of having a clear destination in life to increase one's luck. They argue that knowing one's purpose and destination helps in making informed decisions about the journey, such as what resources to gather and what path to take. The speaker shares an anecdote about a restaurant owner who knew his destination and was not swayed by the prospect of wealth and expansion, illustrating the power of having a clear goal. They suggest that having a destination can transform one's life and increase the likelihood of encountering good luck.
🔄 Persistence as a Catalyst for Luck
In this paragraph, the speaker discusses the role of persistence in achieving luck. They share insights from a study about salespeople, highlighting that the most successful ones are those who persist in reaching out to potential clients, even without immediate responses. The speaker's own experience of persistently reaching out to desired clients over nine years is shared as an example of how persistence can lead to achieving goals and increasing one's luck. They argue that persistence, combined with risk-taking and embracing fear, can significantly transform one's life and luck.
🌈 Transforming Perception of Luck Through Personal Experiences
The speaker concludes by sharing personal experiences that transformed their perception of luck, turning bad luck into good through persistence, risk-taking, and embracing fear. They recount stories of individuals who faced extreme situations, such as the boy in Hiroshima who survived the nuclear bombing due to a risky jump into the water, illustrating how risk can sometimes lead to luck. The speaker invites the audience to share their stories of luck, emphasizing that luck is a concept that can be hacked and influenced by one's actions and mindset.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Luck
💡Risk
💡Fear
💡Destination
💡Persistence
💡Random Occurrences
💡Anomalies
💡Sales
💡Perception
💡Pandemics
💡Gratitude
Highlights
The concept of luck can be 'hacked' through understanding and influencing factors within one's control.
Luck is categorized into two types: uncontrollable random occurrences and controllable influences.
Only about 2% of one's life is influenced by uncontrollable luck, such as the place of birth or random events like a pandemic.
The remaining 98% of life is subject to 'influenceable luck', which can be shaped by personal actions and decisions.
A formula for influencing luck involves taking risks, embracing fear, and knowing one's destination.
Taking risks is crucial for increasing luck, as it leads to more opportunities and learning from failures.
The common misconception 'the harder you work, the luckier you get' is debunked in favor of taking calculated risks.
Fear, when managed properly, can be a powerful motivator and a source of energy for taking risks.
Knowing one's destination provides clarity and direction, which is essential for increasing the chances of luck.
Persistence is key to luck, especially in sales and business, where consistent efforts can lead to success.
The top 10% of salespeople are known to reach out to potential clients up to five times, demonstrating the power of persistence.
A personal story of building a business and the realization that taking risks can lead to greater success.
The importance of embracing fear and using it as a tool to push through to success and satisfaction.
An example of how persistence in sales can lead to securing clients even after years of consistent outreach.
The transformative power of taking risks, embracing fear, and having a clear destination in improving one's luck.
The perception of luck is subjective, and one can choose to view life events as幸运 opportunities for good luck.
Historical examples illustrate how taking risks can sometimes lead to better outcomes, challenging the perception of luck.
A call to action for sharing personal stories of luck to be included in a book about the concept of luck.
Transcripts
so, the question you have to ask yourself is are you lucky? Have you had a lucky life do you
think you're going to be lucky in the future and if you understand the concept of luck
if you understand how luck works you'll discover what i've discovered that you can hack luck
now when i first tell you there's an ability to create your own luck of course there will be a
lot of skeptics out there that will point out something very obvious about luck and that is
that for example where you're born will obviously determine some element of luck in your life and no
matter what you do in life you cannot really influence where you're born and that's true
however what i've discovered after decades of researching luck and trying to understand how
luck works is that in fact luck is broken into two categories the first element of luck is what
we've just talked about there random occurrences totally random occurrences where you're born
is nothing other than a random occurrence of course another random occurrence could have been
coronavirus that could be explained as a random occurrence that happens to us all it is luck
good or bad depending on your setup in life if your zoom for example someone would describe that
as a lucky moment for a brand like that they've done quite well because of corolla virus but
let's assume it's an element of random luck and so what i've discovered in my research is that that
type of luck in the makeup of someone's 80 year life on average is actually only 2 of their life
so in other words in your whole existence on this planet you will in fact only experience
around two percent of uncontrollable totally random luck and so this leaves 98 of your life
for what i describe as luck you can influence and so there is a formula for influencing luck
and having studied lots of people that have been incredibly lucky including myself
i've come to this conclusion around how luck works now i'll just caveat this process by saying that
there will always be anomalies to any theory okay and absolutely with this theory that you can hack
that i have there will always be outliers there will always be exceptions to the rule but 100 for
sure i know that if you follow these three basic principles you will increase your chances of luck
one thousand percent first and probably in my view the most important of the three rules to increase
your chances of luck is you've got to take a lot of risk there is a saying out there which i'm not
particularly fond of which is basically the harder you work the luckier you get the context of it was
a golfer who believed the more he practiced the better he got and actually that whole phrase has
been taken out of context and a lot of people hear you work hard and you will be successful
it's not true if it was true then nurses and and all these people that work incredibly hard
to make our world work would probably all be billionaires they're working 20 hour shifts in
some cases seven days a week especially due through pandemics like coronavirus non-stop
and so it certainly hasn't translated into what we deem as traditional success and so the harder you
work the lucky you get is not true but what i know to be true is the more risk you take
the luckier you get this is a fact again talking about my own personal experience i ran a series
of companies one of them called fluid just across the border in hong kong and in that
company for 10 years i was completely focused and intent on it and it grew slowly but surely
over time in 10 years it grew and then i woke up and i realized this thing i'm now
basically talking to you about that the phrase the harder you work the luckier you get was not true
in fact i learned the more risk you take the luckier you get is true so the first risk i took
which was crucial is i brought someone else in to run the company i'd been working hard at
and instantly i saw that this risk equaled success because this person was very talented and they
made the business work and they made it grow much faster than i had in the last few years of running
the company i came in with new energy new ideas and i took a risk and brought someone else in and
then i found myself actually working less hard and actually being more successful my business
that i owned was more successful because i worked less hard but took more risk and as i discovered
this formula i then started taking even more risk i invested in loads of startups and i started
opening up whole new ventures very risky ones entrepreneur clubs and investment platforms and
all sorts of things comic book business and the more i took risk of course also the more i
failed but the more i failed the more i learned the more i learned the more successful i became
and so for sure the one of the three things you can absolutely do to increase your chances of
luck is take more risk and one final thing i'll mention on risk that's really important
when everyone ever feels that they're taking a risk an element of fear will creep into our bodies
we've all felt it frankly even coming and doing a talk like this there's an element of fear that
most people have often they'll write down public speaking being one of the biggest fears in life
but anyone that's done public speaking at scale as i have done will tell you that once you conquer
that fear that fear's good it makes you prepare it makes you plan it makes you care gives you energy
gives you passion but then when you go through to the other end of fear there is incredible joy
satisfaction you've produced a talk like this that might be useful to millions of people
and through the other side of fear is is total satisfaction and so fear actually in the modern
world has become a misunderstood word and today when people feel fear their instinct is to
try and suppress it and try and not feel it by saying no to things that make them feel fearful
taking risks for example they'll say no to things because it makes them feel fearful and in the
original design of fear a lion is coming towards us we instinctively feel this additional energy
this additional superpower the ability to think faster move quicker do incredible things almost
superhuman things that fear gives us the chance to do and we have no choice but to leverage it
and live with it because the lion's coming towards us there's no oh you know what i'm going to turn
off fear i'm just going to say no to the lion eating me that doesn't exist in the modern world
that does exist and that's the problem people can say no to the line coming towards them
instead of realizing it's an opportunity to learn and build your skill of fear so
fear and and luck and risk are all entwined with each other but if you can learn to love fear
embrace it lean into it you can then learn to take more risk and every time you feel fear and you
feel risk you know you're on the right path and that is definitely the secret to luck the second
element to increasing your chances of of more luck in life is in my view knowing your destination
now when i first say this i'm sure a lot of you in the audience will be thinking well
i know where i'm going i know what i'm doing but do you do you really know one of the things i do
when i'm investing in businesses is i ask the startups i'm investing in to tell me what is
your destination nine times out of ten founders will say well uh i'm building this company up
and uber will buy it or a 10 cent will buy it or some big brand will buy us and we'll make all this
money and every single time i hear that they're missing the point money is only fuel for your car
but without knowing your destination you actually don't know how much fuel you really need in life
so a lot of people think they want to make lots of money actually they don't
need to make lots of money there's always that famous story of a man who owned a beautiful
restaurant in a beautiful part of the world and he enjoyed running that restaurant and someone came
in one day an investor and said this is such a beautiful restaurant concept this could be
bigger than mcdonald's why don't we expand it and the founder of the restaurant said okay that
sounds interesting what happens if we expand it he said well then you know you'll have thousands of
restaurants across the world and you'll be famous and then and the founder of the restaurant said
okay that sounds cool then what well then you can retire and do whatever it is you want with all
that money and fame and the restaurant owner said you know what i would do and the investor said no
what would you do i buy a little restaurant and a place i love to live and serve interesting
people like you in other words he knew his destination already he wasn't tempted
by what was perhaps someone else's destination in this case an investor's destination to make
lots of money or leverage someone else's good idea he knew his purpose and i think
that is really important knowing your destination understanding what your purpose is in life
is kind of crucial and once you know the destination magic happens for example you
know what to pack in the car for that journey when you arrive at your destination you're prepared
mentally physically you know what it is you're trying to do and you're ready for that you see it
as a long game not as a short game second you know what vehicle you need you know you know what sort
of is it is it going to be you know heavy terrain is it is it long distance is it short but sweet
and what is the destination and then you can pick the vehicle and of course by picking the vehicle
you can then also decide what sort of people are going to fit in that vehicle and the metaphor
carries on in my mind to this basically your whole life can be determined if you went outside today
got in your car and didn't know where you were going what a mess your day would be
right but if you knew exactly where you were going some beautiful things happen
even i've had this experience i get to the very destination i've planned
only to realize actually i want more or i want to do something different but i can tick off the box
a sense of accomplishment that i did do what i said i was going to do and even if i arrive at
my destination and i've changed my environment's changed you can then reset your destination but if
you don't have a target you won't hit it so that destination is so crucial and if you know it it
is a game changer in the equation of luck you will increase your chances of luck because
you'll be looking out for the very thing you need to get to the destination you want to be going to
and finally and i always hate putting these things in order but you know i guess
to me this is also pretty important but a lot of people do overlook this
if you want to be more lucky in life you've got to be persistent now it's a very interesting word
persistence because quite often i will talk to founders of companies and they'll tell me
they're not enjoying what they're doing and i will say to them don't do it you know life is
short we've probably all heard that that saying you know when to quit when to continue there's an
interesting line between the two but i think quite often if you have purpose you enjoy fear then this
comes up less often and your whole concept of persistence changes your whole paradigm of what
persistence means completely shifts and you can be persistent without even feeling any persistent
pain it's like going to the gym maybe if you actually find an exercise you like doing at the
gym you look forward to it as opposed to dread dredit and persistence in the sales context is
pretty interesting i personally built a lot of my businesses on sales sales is a very powerful
tool if you leverage it right i think it's more powerful than raising money from investors as
an investor i think i can say this isn't always good to raise money but if you do know how to sell
you can build an incredible business and persistence and sales are very entwined and so
i'll give you an example there was a study done by a famous university that basically had this
whole concept of like how why do some sales people do really well and others not do so well and they
figured out the top 10 percent of sales people what they determined as good salespeople would on
average reach out to a potential client five times these are the good sales people right
and so they would have a process they would get a lead they would follow up they would maybe email
they would then maybe follow with a phone call they'd follow up with another email and then
they would stay in touch with them on average as well for about three months with no reply no
interaction at all from that client would persist for about three months before they would say hey
the traditional sales model is hey this is this is not you know stop selling to someone that doesn't
need what you're offering right give give up because it's don't waste your time 80 of your time
selling to people that don't want your product spend 80 of your time selling to people that do
it's a mistake it's a misunderstanding about sales and persistence is a good way of explaining it so
i started a company in hong kong that did a lot of business in this part of china as well
and that company biggest goal when we first set out was to work with the world's top brands and
we wrote down 50 companies that we wanted to work with worldwide and we said right these are the
companies we believe that we can not only help but of course companies would like to be associated
with so i as the salesperson for that company at the time wrote down a monthly plan of how we would
always reach out to these companies no matter what whether they were our clients or not it took
me nine years from starting the company nine years to get all 50 clients as a client
and the way i did it was every single month i've had a reason to communicate with those clients
it wasn't a one-off five-step process to sell and if it doesn't work move on
every single month i would send a newsletter to those clients every single month i would find a
way of saying happy birthday or happy chinese new year or send them some sort of insight information
on their industry and what was happening every single month i would find a way to talk to them
for nine years and that is the difference the one percent of salespeople know this persistence
concept there's no i've tried they don't want to buy and put the lead into someone else's hands
or give up it's about being persistent and if you're persistent take lots of risk embrace fear
and know your destination your life will transform your luck will pour in and i know
for a fact in my own life that i have transformed my two percent because of my 98
when i was 15 years old my father suddenly died of a heart attack and my whole life fell apart at the
time i thought i was incredibly unlucky to lose my father and have that very difficult situation
that then ensues i was homeless i didn't have any money i didn't have any skills i left school
and it was a very difficult time but equally through all of that trauma came these three
key elements i've just mentioned these strengths to persist the ability to take risks because hey
when you've got nothing to lose taking more risk feels good of course learning to then
improve your ability to enjoy fear because hey you've lost everything what else is there to fear
right and then pushing through to the other side and realizing that actually even the
two percent of bad luck depending on your perception of that moment can end up being
good luck and to me that is the secret a lot of what we're talking about when it comes to
have you have bad luck or have you had good luck are you lucky or unlucky is perception
buddha once said we're all going to have 10 000 hours of good luck and 10 000 hours of bad luck
and my view is everything about that statement is just a matter of perspective and the truth is
you can have 20 000 hours of good luck if you choose so let me tell you about a few
people that have been incredibly lucky or unlucky depending on how you view it
one element of it is one element of it is how you perceive your moment in time so there were these
four boys they were playing on a rock in hiroshima on the 6th of august 1945 the four boys used to
always play here and they used to look down at the river below and tease each other about how they
should take a risk and jump into the river below and three other four boys would always be fearful
and say no and then this one day this one boy said i'm going to show you how to do it i'm not scared
and all of his friends said be careful watch out you know you could hit the rock and die all that
fear kicked in and the fear of the three boys was being projected onto the boy that was not fearful
but he pushed through that objection that friend caring about him feeling and went and jumped off
the cliff and as he hit the water his three friends looking down above grateful that he
hadn't hit the rock and had hit the water and was safe at that very moment as the boy hit the water
the first nuclear bomb ever dropped on a city was dropped on hiroshima
in that moment and these kids were just outside the radius of the nuclear blast at that moment
as the radiation spread out and flowed past these boys playing on the rock the three boys
got completely exposed to the fallout but the one boy under the water got less affected now
back at that time nuclear weapons themselves were a lot less dangerous there's lots of joke adverts
around at the time about called duck and cover quite funny to google but basically no one uh no
you could hide inside a bathtub and potentially not get affected by the nuclear fallout
and it was true outside the blast radius there were some case studies where the bomb fallout
wasn't that dramatic and so basically because this boy was under the water at the time of the fallout
he didn't get as exposed as the three boys on the rock and the three boys on the rock sadly did die
from radiation poisoning but the boy who fell into the water didn't and so the small of the story is
i think sometimes the perception of what's risky and what's not is very interesting in hindsight
so that boy taking a jump into the water was risky but was it he lived he lived his life he went on
to do interesting things with his life and the three that didn't want to take risk sadly didn't
go any further because they didn't take risk and history is completely littered with examples like
this you know there was a an interesting story of um in the second world war again of a raf pilot
who was flying over looking as we as the british and americans and landed in in normandy for d-day
and how uh the pilot recalls how the plane to the left and the plane to the right both got shot at
and was destroyed and he survived why his training wasn't any better his plane wasn't any better the
equipment he had on board wasn't any better the harder he worked made no difference to that moment
right there is this random luck but the fact that he was lucky in that moment he then took the fact
that he felt lucky and said for the rest of his life he was grateful and because he was grateful
he permanently looked for opportunities to feel lucky do good things for people give back
and get that luck that he felt he'd had his whole life because of that horrible experience
with his friends either side in planes dying so so luck is a really interesting concept and i do
feel like with all my heart it's something you can hack and if you enjoyed today's
insight let me know i know we're broadcasting this as a video instead of face to face but i'd
be really interested to know your story of luck what happened to you in life i'm putting a book
together around luck so if you have a story you want to share about luck then please reach out
and let me know thank you very much for letting me share my story of and insights on luck today
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