The Luck Factor
This continues a discussion of
The Luck Factor by the psychologist Richard Wiseman.
The book is based in part upon interviews with several hundred people who self-describe as
being extremely lucky or unlucky, asking them questions about their attitudes to luck and
the role it has played in their lives.
He expresses his conclusions as four principles with twelve subprinciples.
- Lucky people create, notice and act upon the chance opportunities in their lives,
- Lucky people built and maintain a strong "[social] network of luck".
- Lucky people have a relaxed attitude toward life.
- Lucky people are open to new experinces in their lives.
- Lucky people make successful decisions by using their intuition and gut feelings.
- Lucky people listen to their gut feelings and hunches.
- Lucky people take steps to boost their intuition.
- Lucky people's expectations about the future help them fulfill their dreams and ambitions.
- Lucky people expect their good luck to continue in the future.
- Lucky people attempt to achieve their goals, even if their chances of success seem slim,
and persevere in the face of failure.
- Lucky people expect their interactions with others to be lucky and successful.
- Lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune.
- Lucky people see the positive side of their good luck.
- Lucky people are convinced that any ill fortune in their lives will,
in the long run, work out for the best.
- Lucky people do not dwell on their ill fortune.
- Lucky people take constructive steps to prevent more bad luck in the future.
My basic critique is that, starting with people who see life in terms of luck
and asking them questions about luck,
it is not surprising that one ends with answers in terms of luck.
But if one started out to write a book on the topic
"how adopting a positive attitude towards life will help lead to success"
and tried to formulate a list of maxims, then surely such a list would include
similar items but without much explicit mention of luck -- one would just talk about success.