Archive for May, 2008
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Two Novembers ago, I was on my way to a friend’s wedding in a car service. I took the car service straight from work because I had to finish up some work and I told my wife that I would meet her at the wedding. I sat in the back seat, minding my own business and played games on my palm pilot while being driven to the wedding hall. I wasn’t sure where the wedding was so I wasn’t paying attention to if the driver was taking the best route. All of a sudden the car crashed into the car in front of us and the car behind us crashed in to us. I was wearing a seatbelt but it happened to be defective and I flung forward into the seat in front of me which was broken so the plastic and metal from the inside of the seat was sticking out. I wasn’t really sure what happened at the time but I started putting pieces together, especially when a witness saw me and got all freaked out. I was gushing blood from my face. I didn’t realize it until I wiped my face and then found a mirror to look into.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aycasanflickrcom/2081437674/sizes/o/
Someone called 911 and an ambulance was there within minutes. They checked me out and suggested that I go to the hospital to be checked out. That meant that I would have to spend most of the night in the emergency room and miss the wedding. I decided not to go to the hospital and instead go to the wedding.
Here is the rest of the story in point form. You can rate each point as lucky or unlucky, or you can just give it a score as a whole at the end.
- It turned out that my driver was not a licensed car service driver.
- The Police didn’t want to arrest him because it would take up to much of their time so they forced me to say he was my friend.
- I had to walk to the wedding from that point because I was in the middle of nowhere.
- I didn’t pay for that car service ride (which took me more that ¾ of the way there).
- I missed the cocktail reception before the wedding.
- I did make it to the wedding in time for the ceremony.
- I was able to freak people out with the cuts all over my face that were still bleeding.
- I had to walk around with paper towels and constantly wipe off all the blood.
- My friends had a good time making up stories about me taking on a whole gang that was hurting a pussy cat.
- I enjoyed the wedding and went home with my wife at the end of the night.
- I spent the next night in the emergency room getting checked out to make sure there was no damage.
- Today I have a story to tell and I never forget my friend’s anniversary.
Each of the above points can be argued either way as lucky or unlucky. It’s just how you look at them. I consider myself very lucky that I didn’t have any permanent damage besides some little scars. I was held up for a little while but I didn’t miss out on anything too important. I just went on in good spirits.
Feces occur and your luck is how you deal with the cleanup.
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May 23 2008 | Increase Luck and Self Help | 4 Comments »
Jerry Seinfeld has a bit about how winning a bronze medal in the Olympics is better that winning a silver medal in the same event. Everyone knows that gold is the best. It means that you are the winner and you beat everybody. The bronze medalist is happy because he at least won something. The silver medalist gets depressed because what he really is, is the first loser. Of all the losers in the event, he was the first. He is the head of the losers.
There is a lot of truth to Seinfeld’s bit. When winning the silver medal, the person always thinks to themselves, “If I was only a little faster”. “If I worked a little harder and shaved that .2 seconds off my time, I’d have the gold medal”. The bronze medal winner is happy because they think to themselves “wow, if I was just .2 slower, I wouldn’t have won. Look how many people I beat.
Without consciously knowing it, people think about what could have been. In the case of the Olympic medalists, each one thinks about the “what if” scenario closest to their situation. Lucky and unlucky people alike use this same “what if” thinking in every aspect of their life. Most cases are not like the top winners in the Olympics, there are so many possibilities that could have happened and they are right in the middle. Lucky people think that things could be worse and unlucky people think that things could be better.
Image a person getting into a car accident and coming away with whiplash. The unlucky person would think that their whole life is ruined while the lucky person would be thankful that they are still alive. The lucky person will celebrate and the unlucky person will sulk.
Now which of these people will find more luckortunity? The person sulking in his misery or the one telling everyone the story of how happy he is to still be alive?
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May 22 2008 | Advice and Increase Luck | No Comments »
David spent his whole childhood dreaming of joining the army as a fighter pilot. Everything he did in school and his social life was specifically for the purpose of enhancing his chance of achieving his dream occupation. He worked hard at school and got top grades. He studied everything there was to know about the air force and being a fighter pilot. David even attended summer camps run by the army to help him along with his dream.
When David graduated high school, the first thing he did was enroll in the army and start the process of becoming a fighter pilot. He went through all of the army’s training and then went through all of the army’s testing and passed everything with flying colors. David was ready to take his first step into the air force. For the specific role that David wanted there was additional testing to make sure that he would be able to handle the high speeds and altitudes required for the position. Once again David went through the testing with a breeze and passed everything, except the last test. David only had 70% usage of his left nostril. Something that nobody would ever know if they didn’t take that test. In a split second, David’s dreams were crushed.
Being so focused on his goal, David never looked around to see what else was out there for him. Once he found out that he will never be able to be the fighter pilot that he wanted to be, he decided not to give up on everything and he looked around for other alternatives. Every department in the army wanted David because of his strong background and excellent test results. David got many offers from the army and even from companies who tried to recruit him. David was able to write his own ticket and he created a new dream job which looking back, he feels is much more enjoyable and rewarding than being a fighter pilot.
David never would have had this opportunity without a little bad luck first. In fact, David doesn’t even call it good luck vs. bad luck. He says “things happen, it is what you do from there that determines whether it is good or bad”. Many people miss opportunities because they are so focused on one thing. Sometimes it takes a little bad luck to have good luck. But really, maybe you can have more good luck and less bad luck if you just open yourself up to more options.
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May 21 2008 | Advice and Increase Luck | 2 Comments »
Picture is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ms_abitibi/1462557669/
Sociologists estimate that the average person knows 300 people by name. Thinking about this, I probably know a whole lot more than that factoring in the different schools and camps I went to over the years, the communities I lived in, the activities I participated in and the people I have worked with throughout my life. I can’t say that I speak to all of them on a regular basis but I can say that I can get in touch with almost all of them if I need to.
Lucky people know more people by name and are in touch with more people than the average person. Just knowing more people and being in touch with them gives you exponential amounts of luckortunity since each person may bring you your lucky opportunity. Imagine looking for a job. For the average person, if they ask their network of people they know if anyone knows of any positions available, immediately, they have 300 times the chance of when they started looking for a job. Even better, each of the 300 people probably also know 300 people who may know of a job. That is 90,000 people that can help the average person find a job.
Increase your luckortunity by keeping up with your personal network. The closer you are to them, the closer you are to their networks and the luckortunity they can offer.
1) Friend all the people you know on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and any other social network that you are a part of. If you don’t have social network profiles and accounts, go create them.
2) Keep all of your profiles up to date including your current employment.
3) Send messages to your contacts
4) Call old friends from time to time. Try calling a different old friend each week.
5) Socialize and make new friends and contacts.
6) When going to a party or social event, mingle with different types of people each time.
7) Follow up with new friends and contacts by inviting them out for a coffee.
Throw a dinner party and invite people you haven’t spoken to in a long time.
The main thing is to take advantage of the contacts that you have instead of just accumulating names in your phone book.
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May 15 2008 | Advice and Social Media | No Comments »
