In the previous posting Luck versus Experience: Pushing Boundaries in “Extreme Business”, I referred to the jar of luck and the jar of experience that thought leaders draw from when running an “extreme business.”
Venture capitalist Anthony Tjan recently wrote a blog for the Harvard Business Review that discusses “How Leaders Lose Their Luck,” which was based on his upcoming book called Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck. Luck can actually be cultivated in a business, he believes. He listed seven attributes and attitudes of lucky people in business.
Are you demonstrating the right attributes and attitudes to help you open your business life – your jar of luck – to serendipity? Ask, assess, then act.
From the Harvard Business Review article, How Leaders Lose Their Luck
While researching our forthcoming book — Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck — my co-authors and I made a fascinating discovery: a surprising number of company founders and business-builders attribute much of their success to luck. Almost 25% of those we surveyed came out as “luck-dominant” on the Entrepreneurial Aptitude Test we devised; many more gave luck at least partial credit.As we dug deeper, it became clear that it was not just random chance that these people were talking about. Luck in business can be cultivated, through the combination of what we call a lucky attitude and a lucky network. A lucky attitude is a disposition open to serendipity and, well, luck. A lucky network is a wide network of relationships that may at first have little to do with any business objective, but somehow later come into great relevance. We can all think of an example.
Here’s the paradox, though. Once they have made it to the top — after they’ve reached high levels of entrepreneurial or corporate success — leaders often become disconnected from the crucial lucky qualities and relationships that helped get them there in the first place. By definition, the top is less of a journey and more of an arrival point. A newfound reputation is difficult to risk.