How To Manufacture Luck

As a poor immigrant kid from a “sh**hole country” in Eastern Europe, I grew up wearing irregular underwear, eating “choco-chip” cookies, and sleeping on a medieval sofabed with metal bar across my back. I envied anyone who had sneakers that came in a box, not a pile at Bobby’s Department Store. How did I not end up Bowling for Columbine?!? It never occurred to me. My misery motivated me to work that much harder. To outrun poverty. My schoolmates, who had real Abibas, had no reasons to run, just the footwear to do it.

Now we all have real Abibas, but each year brings new reasons not to run – pretzels inside M&M’s, TV dragons more lifelike than Mickey Rourke, and public floggings from the comfort of an iPhone. But our pacifiers became our prisons. People who can’t afford to, stopped running.

Even worse - just as we were speeding down this road to abundance, Americans have splintered into factions - and turned on each other. We’re fighting for scraps, like it’s feudal England. Sure, some ire is justified. This much is crippling. We’re conditioning ourselves to be powerless victims and eternally discontent. We’re pouring too much of ourselves into things we can’t control. It’s self-sabotage. There is no magical billionaire, democratic socialist, or strain of weed that will save us. There is, however, one trick that just might. Or at least, drastically improve our lives TODAY. Yes, WE can MANUFACTURE LUCK! The key is buried deep inside The Universal Success Formula….and held by unlikely keymasters, Kardashians. Trust me, this will all make sense shortly.  

There are two parts to success. Let’s start with...

1. THE ‘UNIVERSAL SUCCESS FORMULA’

Ask Mark Cuban - or a successful, self-made, actual Cuban - for career advice, and this formula is what they’ll give you. They might not say it as crisply or have these awesome graphics, but this is the worst-kept, least understood secret on Earth. 

Think of success as an investment portfolio that has three “stocks”:

• 25% Luck
• 25% Talent
• 50% Effort CRUSHING DRUDGERY

The percentages might vary by person or profession, but the proportions usually stay in this range.

LUCK, 25%

Our first bout with luck is at birth. Being born in the US is a head start on half the world, but only exposes a more nuanced spectrum of fortune to misfortune. Your starting point depends on lots of variables you can’t control. Things like childhood disease, height, looks, birth defects, family wealth, IQ, sexuality, athleticism, gender, type of parents, race, neighborhood, etc.

It wasn't long after immigrating here that I realized I’d be stuck with this face, this body, and this hairline. I’d NEVER know what it’s like to get free drinks at the bar – or dunk on Lebron. And you might never know what it’s like to sketch these stunning diagrams. Those are the breaks.

Even Bill Gates and the recently-departed Stephen Hawking were lottery winners. In many other eras, they would have been meals, not millionaires. They were lucky to be born in a time and place where fertile minds matter more than feeble bodies. (RIP, Stephen)

TALENT, 25%

Talent is an extension of luck, but it must be developed, nurtured. It can be a blessing or a curse.

Sports are littered with underachievers. Athletes so talented, so physically gifted, they dominate every competitor early in life. They can get by on their gifts – until they face others with similar gifts, but also discipline and grit. Then they wither.

It’s not just sports.

Whitney Houston’s voice was a remarkable instrument. Jennifer Lopez can barely eke out a note. But whose life and career would you rather have? Talent withers in neglect…and sometimes, so does its keeper.

Talent also suffers from pesky deployment issues.

Many people's best gifts are used recreationally, not professionally. Some of the funniest people I've met make pizza or PowerPoints, not jokes at Comedy Cellar.

Some talents, aren’t obviously marketable. High pain tolerance and bravery might be great if Jackass, the Movie is a hit. Less so, when volunteering medical experiments for extra cash.

Other gifts like intelligence, have a sweet spot, then sour. Too high an IQ impedes wealth creation and increases chances of depression, and analysis paralysis. You may be the next Einstein, but that won’t come with a Bentley or a galley of minions to command with your gut…decisions.

[More on intelligence & wealth in the expanded, snarkier version of this post.]

EFFORT, 50%

Let’s do a thought experiment. Name the three least-talented celebrities you know.

Here’s a secret about all of them: The fact you know their name means their focus and drive is well beyond anyone you've met. They persisted and overcame incredible odds – after others had long surrendered. Each one made themselves undeniable.

Ask any famous comedian about the brilliant minds they met on their way up. Hilarious people whose names we’ll never know because they quit before they got their break – or, before their less-talented, more-ambitious peers did – and could bring them along for the ride.

Even when luck plays a part, no one stays famous more than a month without extraordinary effort.

My past articles have a healthy dusting of Kardashian jokes. Kim and Kanye will be happy to know I’m here to repent.

On the surface, Kardashians’ success looks superficial, excessive and unearned. They don’t sing, dance, act, swallow swords – or do anything that technically qualifies as “entertainment”. They’re attractive, I suppose. But the world is full of hotter, younger women (and men) whose best day is scoring a free Tinder meal or a 40% tip from some hopeful sap.

Somehow, they turned a porn tape – something that could shame a family for life – into a massive enterprise.

Before you bust out that Nikon and call Ray-J, let’s dig a little deeper.

Beneath the makeup and booty pics, you’ll find a grueling schedule that would eat most of us alive. Nonstop filming, publicity, business meetings, travel, social media, and the occasional sex change.

Part of their Faustian bargain is surrendering all privacy. Perhaps their ability to withstand crushing criticism from millions of detractors *is* their talent. It’s a Darwinian mutation that might someday rival the first fish that breathed air and crawled onshore.

Whatever you think of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, for two years, they were 70+ year old Kardashians – with a work schedule that would devour people half their age. Same goes for countless self-made leaders, entrepreneurs, and creators. It’s why we know their names…and they don’t know ours.

While the goal isn’t always notoriety, it’s a good way to gauge the grueling outer limits of effort.

Superstar comedian and actor Kevin Hart says it best in his Twitter bio:

“My name is Kevin Hart and I WORK HARD!!! That pretty much sums me up!!! Everybody Wants To Be Famous But Nobody Wants To Do The Work”

– Kevin Hart

Remember, effort trumps all most. It can make unlucky, marginal talents soar above timid prodigies.

2. CONTROL LIFE? CONTROL LUCK?!?

Here’s the real secret sauce.

What few realize is luck is both an input and an output.

In the Universal Success Formula, luck is what you got; but in real life, it’s what you made…up to a point.

Let’s say you KILL IT on your success formula. You make every effort imaginable to succeed, to maximize your luck and talent. Even then, you’ll rarely control more than 20% of what happens to you.

Depressing, right? All that work and you’re still not in charge!

But that 20% has a halo effect.

When others see you doing great work, networking, hustling, going the extra mile, you could influence another 20%.

That might mean a woman who once saw you speak at a conference thinks of you for a job at her firm. Or, Stephen Colbert’s talent booker stumbles onto the podcast you've meticulously crafted for years, in obscurity. Or, some rich guy sees your impromptu jam session in the park and wants to hire you to play sax at his yacht party.

That second 20% is MANUFACTURED LUCK!! You put yourself out there – when nobody asked you to. You created more opportunities for luck to happen. It’s pure alchemy. It doubles your chances of success.

But the rest? The other 60%? It just happens. Even to the Kardashians.

Of course, there is one thing you can control in that 60% – how you react. Over time, that will be the difference between getting up to fight harder or giving up.

To put it all together…

Finally…

I get it. I’m not insensitive to why people are unhappy…or haven’t achieved everything they wanted. I haven’t. Not yet. Every day is a struggle to rekindle that youthful hunger. To sprint in real Adidas. But I’m hardly alone.

Successive generations after immigration lose that hunger. And let’s face it, if you’re reading this online, you feel it too. We have comforts and amusements Julius Caesar would kill for, but we’re not Caesar…or even founders of Little Caesar’s. We simply can’t afford to coast.

For my specific recipe for success - however you define it - see the expanded version of this post, “The Real Reason You’re Smart, But Not Rich”.

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Bio:

Steve Faktor is CEO of IdeaFaktory growth & innovation advisory and founder of GrowthFaktory, the no-BS guide for entrepreneurs. Steve’s the provocative host of The McFuture Podcast, popular keynote speaker, and LinkedIn Influencer. He’s regularly featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, NPR, Wall Street Journal, among others. Steve is the former head the American Express Chairman’s Innovation Fund, senior executive at Citi and MasterCard, and Andersen consultant. You can follow him via email newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter.