How To Get Luckier - Part 1

“Luck Surface Area” - a term coined by entrepreneur Jason Roberts. It’s a mathematical representation of how you can increase your “chances of success” (aka luck), in which:

Luck Surface Area = Doing x Showing = Building x Selling

If you’re too focused on building without showing people. The world wouldn’t know that you have a gift, a passion, or some sort of value. Luck wouldn’t find you.

If you’re too focused on selling without actually building anything, when people find out about your real work, they’ll never trust you again. Luck without trust wouldn’t result in opportunities.

The smart way to increase your Luck Surface Area is to increase both your work rate and your show rate.

In this series, I’ll share my mindsets and methods to “get luckier” more effectively.

Method 1: Network Expansion (and a question that changed my life)

I’ve been intentional about expanding my network in an unstructured way for the past 5 years, but I noticed that when life got busy, I tended to sacrifice meeting new people first because the benefits were not instantaneous (compared to taking care of some admin work for the business).

But as I’ve mentioned in my previous post about relationship investing, building a strong network is critical to not just professional development but also general happiness. It’s a long-term game.

That’s why for 2024, I have set aside 2 time blocks every week, dedicated to “Networking Exploration”. To fill these spots, I would message people I find interesting on the Internet to invite them for a coffee chat or video call.

These meetings would vary in length, but as a general rule of thumb, I’ll keep it under 60 minutes for online and 90 minutes for in-person. I’ll first try to learn about their life story (mostly around career paths), and current big projects. I’ll then share what I do, and it’s a free-flow discussion from then.

But here’s the most important piece - I always wrap up my meetings with this question:

Now that you know what I do, who do you think I should talk to?

If they’re not sure what I meant, I’ll say “This person should do 1 of the following 3 things:

• Inform me about something I’m trying to learn because they’re knowledgeable

• Inspire me to do something because they’re passionate

• Vibe with me - meaning we just have matching energy. We can either collaborate professionally or become great friends.”

This question allows you to tap into not only someone’s knowledge or passion, but also their most valuable resource - their NETWORK.

I have a super strong belief that:

Cool people know cool people.

So if you like someone because of their knowledge, passion, or energy, chances are, they know someone who you’ll like as well. Ask for an introduction. Could be via a group chat or a coffee chat with all 3.

Worst case scenario: You lose 30 minutes of your time to learn more about what type of people you don’t like.

Best case scenario:

1. You create an “excuse” for your friend to reconnect with his distant ties.

2. You add another great person to your network, and

3. You create this small group of synergized individuals that would have never found each other if you had left it to “luck”.

I met

Tuấn Mon

this way via a friend’s introduction. And 2 years later since that introduction, we’ve created one of the most recognizable online writing courses in Vietnam. He’s one of my closest friends now. I feel lucky to have met him every day.

Your next best friend/ business partner/ most valuable recruit is probably just 1-introduction away. You decide if you want to get lucky or not.

To get luckier: (1) Set aside time to meet new people and (2) Ask for introductions to their network.

A question for you: Who do you think I should talk to?

Next episode: How to MASSIVELY scale “luck”?

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Disclaimer:

1. I’m writing about the type of luck that you can control here, not privilege - the type of luck that you are born into.

2. You shouldn’t read this as a mandate about luck, it’s my personal mental model, so I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback!