Why Luck Matters

March 2024

Luck is perhaps the most Important factor in any competitive arena. As variable as Luck is, it is roughly random. So how to make this our Advantage?

Around 50% of all scientific discoveries are Serendipities, or accidental discovery. If Roentgen had not left his samples locked with a photographic plate as he left for vacation, If Fleming had not left his Petri dish uncovered, and If scientists had not mixed two dangerous substances during the Manhattan project, would the world would have been as it is now?

Leaving Serendipity out of the question, Every sport event, Business IPO, Stock trends, and in fact What-not is highly monopolised by luck. Despite all the hard work of each subject, luck plays it’s hand when if it strikes, It makes an impact. That is what this article is about. How to wield luck. But we are not handing out samples of DIY Felix Felicis. It won’t make you lucky, It just makes luck less random and definitely against your opponents.

Part #1: Luck favours the Action

This is important ground here cats. Luck is always a temptress that favours the Men and Women of Action. It is quite obvious both intuitively and mathematically. But seldom applied because Action and Bustle doesn’t make you lucky, It just increases the number of time you could be lucky. It might make the Good Better, and the Bad worse. If life were a game of Poker, This would be just like increasing the stakes. But you get the catch don’t you? Life isn’t a game of poker.

Your actions palpably influence your future. And your years of hard work don’t go into the sands. Life may be more like the stock market, except one that is always facing a crash. Luck matters insufficiently compared to your knowledge of the market, and your expertise in facing a crash. Even in a game of poker, the more experienced hand sweeps the stakes away. Because ultimately Consistent and Good things compound. More important in this context, that the next steps are entirely about making sure you win, if then why not increase the stakes?

Part #2: Your trump Card

Your trump card in the Poker game. True, everyone has one. But you know how this goes, Everyone has a talent … They must discover it … Many don’t … The typical primary school motivational speech. But this is not about Talents, that’s for another day. It is more about the Unfair Advantage. As unfair and creepy as it sounds, it is the ultimate fairness in the world. Everything like equality, equal education, equal rights and freedom ultimately fail when it ensures a profit to unexpected forces. The only definite thing is yourself. And what ensures your achievement is what you have done, The victors are never asked if they told the truth (except by themselves). And your Unfair advantage is…

I don’t know. Nor can this blog help you find one, but it can guide you. The thing is the Unfair Advantages are volatile with little shelf life. Each and every situation requires an unfair advantage, or a set of them. And nor do they need enlightenment to formulate. Just a simple thought. I made this Everything Survival guide inspired from many sources, but here I am sharing it! Let’s say you are going to a Art competition:

1. Observe your environment - Check for immediate threats (Could be a really fatal mistake you made in the beginning that your opponents begin to use), and think about the potential competition (Better artist on the row, better art on the niche).

2. List your resources - What are your resources that are dwindling (Time), What could you do to subsist without it (Relax, and remove unnecessary things off the to-do)

3. Look out - More on this the third reason.

4. Unfair Advantages - Advantages that you alone possess, that you can leverage to win (Better strokes, better basic Idea, Vivid Watercolors while many competitors use pencil sketches)

5. Say checkmate - Just added to manage to cool-factor

This is what I do when I am in a competition, and am two turns away: Analyse the situation. It also helps your nerve. Most importantly this is what defines your luck’s direction. By revealing your undefeatable (Let’s assume so) weapons at the last second, you entirely change the course of your luck.

Note that though Luck is seemingly random, It is just the aggregation of all your actions, a result of all the practice sprints. But the Unfair advantage is more or less entirely random, It has no definite observable trend that who possesses what. So If you found a U.A begin working on it Now. Well not now, after you have finished the next section, Look out!

Part #3: Constant Vigilance

When I was young, I used to attend Chess tournaments. Many a times and unsurprisingly, I lost. After the competition, I went through the scoresheet (each player’s record of each other’s moves, sometimes mandatory). About always, I lost because I failed to notice the opponent’s move which, if I had not been too immersed in my own moves, would have found dancing naked before my eyes. And so I lost, even at times one move from winning. I came up with this conclusion that one may lose even in his best form at the best moment, if he had not noticed his opponent’s plan aka his surroundings. That is why you need to keep taking in information, keep that pupil dilated, and remastering your game plan every moment. Because the most important trait that seduces luck, is actually pulling the hook at the right moment. And how do we do that? By waiting in your boat, your arms sore but your eyes trained taut. Patience pal, Patience.