Lifestyle

The proven formula for creating good luck

If you think that some people have all the luck, you’re probably right. But their luck didn’t just fall out of the sky. Real luck occurs at the intersection of random chance, talent and hard work. People who have a talent for luck are open to possibilities, see opportunities and go where lucky things can happen.

Lucky people put themselves in the place where good things can occur. When Mark Zuckerberg was a Harvard undergraduate with the idea to start Facebook, he moved to Palo Alto, Calif., for a summer. In that high-tech environment, he met the people who could support him, and he got his first angel investments. He went where the luck would be — and he’s now worth about $72 billion.

Some people create luck for themselves by taking an unusual path. TV executive Mike Darnell was at FOX when he decided that he could make luck by going in a different lane than everyone else. He started developing reality shows, and he didn’t care when competitors scoffed at them. He liked one pitch he heard — and bought a summer-replacement show called “American Idol.” When it went on to be one of the biggest shows in TV history, Darnell looked very lucky. But he had put all the pieces in place.

Everybody wants the one big lucky hit that will change everything. An executive I know bought Microsoft stock when it first went public in 1986. The $2,000 he invested then is worth about three-quarters of a million dollars today. Nice, right?

He brags about that investment often. But he never mentions the many other stocks he bought that same year that stayed flat. He didn’t get lucky by picking the right stock; he picked a lot of stocks.

People often look lucky because they have hedged their risks — so if one opportunity doesn’t work out, they can turn to another. To be lucky, you want to diversify your life in the same way that experts recommend you diversify your financial investments.

There’s a great myth that startup entrepreneurs have to believe in their companies enough to invest every dollar they have. But as a general rule, that’s a terrible way to make luck. If you put all your eggs in one basket and go for broke, you might truly go broke.

Situations that seem like crazy coincidence aren’t necessarily as crazy as they seem

If you want to get lucky in love, you need to pay attention to where you’ll find the best opportunities. Having too many choices online doesn’t always lead to success. Helen Fisher, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute and chief scientific advisor to Match.com, advises that you check out five to nine people on a website and then get to know one of them. People who invest in a relationship are more likely to get the lucky dividends.

Luck in love comes more from the strength of the connections than the power of the numbers. You’re more likely to find love among the 125 people at a friend’s wedding than the 50,000 fans at Yankee Stadium. And the luckiest people have a longer view than just the thrill of walking down an aisle. The real luck in a relationship kicks in once you treat another person’s needs like your own.

Lucky occurrences can seem magical at first. But once you know the principles behind them, they are both predictable and explicable.

Situations that seem like crazy coincidence — you’re traveling in an exotic location and run into a childhood friend — aren’t necessarily as crazy as they seem. There are 7 billion people on the planet, so even if something is a million-in-one shot, it will happen to 7,000 of us. The random and unlikely are often a lot more expected than you realize.

Similarly, if you have a dinner reservation at a Midtown restaurant where all your guests have to arrive on time or you lose the table, don’t invite too many people. Even if your friends are all 90 percent reliable, once you have more than six people, the likelihood is that someone will be late (and you’ll all end up going out for pizza).

Lucky people tend to be positive and optimistic. If you think you can make good things happen, you’ll work hard until you get the results you want. If you see yourself as unlucky, you’ll give up before you start — and the bad luck will continue.

We’re all born with certain pieces of luck in place — where we live, who our parents are, how we look. But in creating a lucky life, those chance elements count for a lot less than you might think. Pay attention to the possibilities around you and you can end up feeling very lucky, now matter how you start out.

Janice Kaplan is the author of 14 books, including “How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life” with Barnaby Marsh (Dutton), out now.