Luck is not magic. Luck is a surface that can be engineered.
Like a crop, you sow your own luck, sprinkle the infield with possibilities.

Its like a blanket you cast over the world - the larger your surface area of opportunity the better your odds (unlucky people arent cursed, they just cast small blankets).

Here are 10 tenets of luck you can practice to increase your opportunity surface, summarized from one of my favorite essays:

1) Take More Shots
Let Wayne Gretzky be vindicated -- the cliche holds. The easiest way to get lucky is to simply stay in the game and keep shooting. You may fail a hundred times, all it takes is one lucky break (conversely, its extremely hard to get lucky if you’ve already given up). Action creates optionality; experiment fast, break things, get better, move on from bad ideas fast. You will get better with more shots, your first 10 shots will most likely be bad anyways so you might as well get them over with.

2) Be Visible
Lady luck will find you if you’re on the dance floor - don’t hide from her. By this I mean you should build in public - share your thoughts, write linkedin and blog posts. Don’t be scared to be wrong or vulnerable, in fact you should accept these as par for the course. Overcommunicate, show the unfinished product, help people help you. Cringe is a myth. Courage is admired. Visibility isn’t vanity -- its addressability.

3) Find Your People
This stems from the first two. Become a master networker. The Kevin Bacon effect is real, take full advantage of your 6-degrees of connection. Go to the events, talk to strangers, smile on the bus, be a part of the community, be generous, make introductions, dont burn bridges. You are the product of the 5 people you most-closely associate with (sum of friends), find people who lift you up and open doors, be someone who makes them better in return.

4) Live in the Nucleus
Point blank you should find the epicenter and go there. This is more obvious than most people like to admit. The purist will say you should pack your bags and move to San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles - things just move faster there; you increase your rate of collisions. If you’re too tied down then next best is to visit; go to conferences, plan a week and schedule meetings out there, whatever you can manage. The same applies to online communities, but there is no substitute for in-person.

5) Protect Your Downside
Seek assymetric bets - ie things with low downside and outsized upside. Make a habit of doing the napkin math on probabilities before you swing the bat. Find ways to hedge your bets; have a secondary income until you can afford to make the side thing your ‘main’ thing. If something feels risky, start by subtracting sources of fragility. Dont risk it all if you dont have nothing to lose.

6) Stay Flexible
Leave room for sponteneity. Practice passionate detachment - intensely committed to solving a problem, generally detached from any particular solution. Be mindful of the one-way door (ie decisions you cant take back). Increase flexibility by diversifying your portfolio, preferring shorter time horizons over long ones. Be decisively pragmatic.

7) Notice
Pay attention. Lift your head up from your phone and look around a bit. Break your routines, relax your attention, and embrace curiosity. Lucky people make a point of scanning for opportunities that others have missed. Become an expert (or at least dangerous enough to discern BS and recognize the important patterns).

8) Heed the Silver Lining
You will fail, in fact you must fail to be lucky. The best can embrace failure and turn it into an advantage. Learn from it. Galvanize yourself with it. The difference between dancing and flailing your arms is grace and confidence. Sometimes the best opportunities come disguised as disasters; learn to recognize them.

9) Compound Compound Compound
Most of us underestimate the impact of time. Warren Buffett earned his luck in the markets with 70+ years of experience. Your skills, network, and reputation all compound with time. Lean into this - plan for a decade time horizon. Expect good fortune, play long games, keep adding tools to your toolbox. Every shot on goal is a deposit into your luck account. Start compounding young (learn, earn, legacy)

10) Believe in Yourself!!!
Maybe the most important of all, belief is the best compounder. The Galatea effect - simply believing you’re luckier actually increases your likelihood of success. It changes what you notice - expect to find opportunities and you’ll see more of them (and the opposite; think poorly do poorly). Its hard to be great without knowing youre great. Self-efficacy mother f’er.

Take care,
Ramsey