Welcome to the “Master Connector: Create Your Own Luck” Newsletter!

Welcome to the very first issue of the Master Connector: Create Your Own Luck newsletter. I’m very excited to have you join me on this journey. Each Thursday, I’ll bring you powerful stories and actionable content designed to make 2025 your luckiest year yet!

Before we dive in further, I want to share a little bit about what motivated me to start this newsletter. My whole life, both personally and professionally, I’ve had a knack for making connections everywhere I go.

Many of those connections were the catalyst for some very “lucky” events in my life. But if I take a step back, I realize it wasn’t really luck. It wasn’t random. They were situations that materialized as a result of a connection with another human being.

You may be familiar with a well known quote frequently attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The problem with this view, however, is that for each successful individual who has been prepared and then successfully took advantage of an opportunity, there are countless others in all walks of life who have worked hard, been prepared, and yet never found their opportunity.

A better way to interpret “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” is to look at preparation and hard work as something that will put you in the best position for when an opportunity may arise. Preparation does not guarantee success, although without preparation your chances of succeeding are reduced exponentially.

There is another factor, though, that plays an outsized role in this luck equation. That factor is People. Luck does not manifest itself in a silo. Luck is almost always the result of connecting with one or more people. Did you marry the love of your life? Somebody said “I do”. Working at your dream job? Somebody said “You’re hired”. Win a big account? Somebody said “I’d love to entrust you with our business”.

A modified version of the phrase “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” that I prefer is: "Luck is rarely a solo act—it's the result of preparation, opportunity, taking action, and someone giving you a chance."

On the surface, this seems pretty simple. And it is. But like the big enigma called life, this too is not easy. So I hope to provide you with the skillset, toolset and mindset to make creating luck an everyday occurrence for you in whatever areas of life you hope to be more lucky in: health, wealth, career, friendship, love, social, etc.

Like Napoleon Hill, who studied self-made millionaires to uncover the secrets of wealth, I’ve examined many of those who seem incredibly lucky. Think of Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, and others—their luck wasn’t random. Each had a key opportunity opened by someone else. Gates jump started Microsoft by licensing MS-DOS to IBM, Oprah got her break from an AM Chicago producer, and Zuckerberg leveraged Harvard’s network to launch Facebook.

At its foundation, luck isn’t just about who you currently know and the actions you are willing to take. Luck is more often the result of who you are willing to put yourself in the position of meeting. I call this “expanding your surface area of luck”.

There are many habits that can make our lives better: exercising, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, investing enough for retirement, etc. But for a variety of reasons many people struggle to do the things that are good for them. Being social and expanding your personal network is one of these habits that people often struggle with. It has also been exacerbated since the pandemic.

Studies have shown that having a strong network of people in your life can provide significant physical and psychological benefits, including reduced stress, improved mood, better immune system function, decreased risk of depression, increased life expectancy, enhanced coping mechanisms during difficult times, and a greater sense of belonging and purpose. This same network of people can also increase your surface area of luck.

So with that as a foundation, in this newsletter we’ll be exploring how you can manifest luck in any area of your life through the relationships you cultivate, as well as how you can create luck in other people’s lives by being their lucky genie. Because the single strongest way to create more luck for yourself is to create luck for others.

Think of a recent time in your life when you’ve experienced luck as the result of a personal connection. Tell us about it in the comments below. And be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future posts.

Looking forward to reading your comments and I’ll see you next Thursday!