You Can Make Your Own Luck

Last weekend I was on Good Morning America talking about all things internships and first jobs. But after I posted the clip to social media, a number of people pointed out that all of these ten tips are good reminders for ALL of us.

But, I also mentioned that I stalked my future boss to a blood drive, and that's how I got my first job in the White House.

Last week, I shared this story with my newsletter readers first. But I thought maybe you'd like it, as an example of ONE THING you can do to make your own luck. (Blood need not be spilt, the lesson of putting yourself in the place where people can find you remains regardless.)

The quick backstory is that I had dropped out of law school to volunteer on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign because I heard him talk about the idea of national service. (The fuller backstory has me practically flunking out before learning about this unknown presidential hopeful from a tiny southern state. If you've seen me on stage, you've heard some of this. If not, you should tell the event organizers at your organization to bring me in as your next keynote.) I hated law school, so when Clinton won, I packed all of my earthly belongings into my car, and took the auto train to Washington, DC to start volunteering on the Presidential Transition Team.

My parents, who never showed an ounce of flexibility in their lives, actually offered me six months of rent -- which at the time was about $1200 in total and all the roaches and mice I could stand to live amongst in the dingiest basement apartment in the city -- and told me that if I didn't find a paying job by the time the six months came to an end, I would have to return to law school.

Suffice it to say: I was incentivized.

On the campaign trail, I met a guy named Patrick who started organizing volunteers for the transition and eventually after the inauguration. He called me on the first day and asked me to come in to the White House to volunteer, first in political affairs, where I had to deal with a very young and confident Rahm Emanuel. It was a rough day that made law school look like Disney World.

But on the second day, he called me in to volunteer for the Office of National Service, which would eventually create AmeriCorps. Obviously, this was where I had wanted to be from the start. But, I was surrounded by all of this Bright Young Things who had gone to way fancier schools and had way better connections and who weren't, to the best of my knowledge, wearing their mother's hand-me-down 1980s Alexis Carrington shoulder padded suits.

After six weeks of volunteering, with just about a month left in my stay-of-law-school-execution, opportunity found me in the form of the White House Blood Drive.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked into the office one day and there was a clipboard hanging there that said "VOLUNTEER TO GIVE BLOOD!" And, when I looked at the sign up sheet, I noticed that there were two spots available every 15 minutes and the head of our office, a legend named Eli Segal who had run the entire 1992 campaign and was one of the most powerful connectors in democratic politics at the time, had signed up for 9:00am. The line next to him name? Blank.

So, I scrawled my name next to his.

Now, to fully understand the audacity of this idea, you must know that I have this medical condition called vasovagal syncope, which means that I tend to fait -- remember Mexico City's taco stand in January? -- and I faint when I'm dehydrated, stressed, or in a compromised medical state like having just given blood. All of that means that I had to keep my composure for the entirety of the bloodletting, while I had my hopefully future boss trapped-by-IV next to me on a cot, and also not turn ghastly pale and crumble to the floor, passing out, when it came time to pop back up and walk briskly together back to the office.

But, I did. And the next day he handed me an assignment that turned my volunteer role into a full time job.

I talk a lot about how we can make our own luck. And, this story, my friends, is probably about the best example I can ever give you about how I know it's true.

And if you want to read more about how YOU can make your own luck, with the science behind what works, you might want to sign up for Hello Truesday.