The Pursuit of Luck

As strange as it seems I enjoy shopping for groceries at the supermarket.  And there is no doubt that because of my different moods on the day I don’t always get everything I need in one visit. So I tend to visit the supermarket at least two or three times per week.   I guess that my “wants” are based on my mood so that’s why on a Monday the honey does not jump out at me and say “buy me”, but on a Wednesday it very well could.

Similarly, my shopping experiences can be quiet where the presence of others is only noted to avoid cart collisions, or they can be filled with unsolicited interactions and even conversations with complete strangers.

Yesterday, at the supermarket as I snaked through the aisles in the clockwise direction, a couple around the 65 year old mark were pushing their cart in the anti-clockwise direction.  The first time we  passed  the husband, with mischievous demeanor, looked me in the eye, made an unsolicited comment then drew me into a conversation.  The conversation was trivial but pleasant enough and then every time we passed each other in a  different aisle there would be another interaction, a comment, a “joke” or even a snide remark or two like how he was never allowed to buy what he wanted as he glanced toward his wife some four steps ahead.

As I reached the last couple of aisles where the frozen goods are (that’s why I go in a clockwise direction) an elderly lady, about 75,with an English accent took one glance at  me and starting telling me “what nonsense global warming was”.   I knew of this lady, because I live in a small town of around 100,000 people called Launceston where by co-incidence her late husband John Daly taught me economics in the late eighties when I was Year 12.  That same year he released The Greenhouse Trap, one of the first books to question the so called science of global warming.

I engaged in conversation with Mrs Daly but did’t have the heart (or maybe the gumption) to tell her that I knew her late husband.  In fact, I  admired him greatly because he stood up to conventional wisdom and as an impressionable 17 year old he encouraged me when he told me that I could write well and should consider a career in writing. I recall his comment annoying my good friend Mark and tinging him with a bit of envy.  By the way Mark is in private equity in New York making about a hundred dollars in the same time that I can type a word.

As I left the supermarket I pondered as to:

why three days ago did I not invite the interaction of strangers but today I did it twice?

On the day of interactions I was not wearing a name tag saying “Hello my name is Jason please say hello and talk to me” so my conclusion was that it had to be a difference in the way people perceive me from day to day.

To the books and research I went where I discovered that there are numerous non-verbal cues and behaviours that invite interaction and there are some that discourage interaction. And given that eliciting interpersonal interactions is a very effective way to put yourself in the path of luck it is important to study and adopt the “eliciting” appearances and behaviours and avoid those that erect a “barrier.

Relating the published research to the exciting supermarket setting it was evident that on the day I invited interaction I was not using open arm gestures as I was pushing a cart.  Similarly, on the day that I did not invite interpersonal interaction was not walking around with arms crossed, making a barrier because again I was pushing a trolley.   My physical appearance and clothes would have been very similar, so it was not that either.

In the absence that the interaction catalyst was not my clothes or arm gestures perhaps it was my smile?  I am certain that some days I have an “approach me” smile and that some days I am a million miles away and not smiling at all.

So back to the science articles again and “bingo” – smiling is one of the best ways to invite interaction from others. Science has shown that smiles are typically considered positive displays and that smiling directly and positively influences other people’s attitudes.

Moreover, in a 2004 study by Lynden K Miles of the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Miles demonstrated that the subject people in his experiment decreased their interpersonal distance when the approaching target was displaying a natural enjoyment smile.

The lesson that supermarkets and science offers us is  - “smile”.  Natural smiles signal trustworthiness, co-operative intent and even a safe environment.   Smiles are a means of inviting, establishing and maintaining interpersonal interactions.  And interpersonal interactions are at the heart of the Pursuit of Luck – read my post on “People Collisions”.

Get out and about, be happy, smile, invite interpersonal interactions and get lucky,

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.

Michelangelo – Italian sculptor, painter, architect & poet, considered the creator of the Renaissance, 1475-1564)

Collaboration is one of the most effective enablers of heading down new, creative and innovative paths.  One brain is simply one brain.   Five people collaborating, however,  is five brains.  The five brains bounce off each other, inspire, motivate, annoy and become a catalyst for new thoughts and new ideas. Collaborative interactions create and innovate.

Musicians and script writers are the masters of collaboration.  Do you think those fantastically funny Family Guy scripts would have been created with with just one writer sitting in a room by themselves?  Not a chance.

Even engineering based companies can be great collaborators.  Do you think the world would be able to enjoy the seamlessness and “loveliness” of an iPad if Steve Jobs did everything?  Not a chance.

Starting now, think of yourself as the collaboration ringmaster.   Pick projects that matter and pull together and manage the collaboration of your co-workers, team members, friends, family, subcontractors,  suppliers and experts.  Think of yourself as the producer of a rock band.  Find the musicians, the sound engineer, the studio, the video clip director and produce something.   Or think of you and your team as the script writers for Seinfield – sit in a room bounce ideas off each other and create.

No man is an island

John Donne, English Poet

As a business consultant I am into planning – planning that is broad with lots of wriggle room, planning that is succinctly articulated on the back of a napkin and planning that incorporates Keep it Simple Stupid design.

The key to good planning is wriggle room because plans never work out the way that is estimated or predicted.   How could they when just one day of life is made up of trillions of human actions, interactions and thoughts set amongst nature and the universe which is also imposing trillions of forces upon us.

John Steinbeck said it best in his 1937 novel Of Mice and Men:

The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry

Bad planning is over-planning.  When you over plan you are not only setting yourself up for disappointment when things don’t work out you are also closing the door to serendipity.

This principle is best understood looking at the two styles of planning a vacation.  Neurotic over planners buy their airline tickets online, book hotels on Expedia, reserve their rental car with Avis and pre-buy tickets to attractions and eat at the restaurants that they have read about on peer-review dining-out websites.

Conversely, a broad-brush planner  might simply plan to visit Tasmania and spend at least two nights on the East Coast.    One morning they arrive at a sleepy little town called Triabunna where the local coffee shop owner suggests that they buy some sandwiches, a bottle of wine and some Tasmanian cheeses, get the ferry to Maria Island, climb Mt Bishop and Clerk and have lunch looking out over the Tasman Sea.

The neurotic over planner will  simply never experience this via Expedia.  However, the broad-brush planner who engages with the locals and has an open mind will enjoy these inspiring serendipitous moments.

Sachin Agarwal, founder of blogging platform Posterous spent 6 years at Apple as an engineer and recounts are number of interesting lessons learned from the company’s management style.   One of these lessons is a pursuit of luck lesson – ignore what your competitors are doing, do something that challenges.

“Apple doesn’t believe in playing the “feature game” with [its] product,” says Agarwal. As in, the company focuses more on its goals for its own products, rather than comparing itself to competitors’ and trying to outdo them on the same levels.

That mission is “deeply engrained in the culture,” he adds. Employees aren’t focusing on what the competition is doing — they’re driven to innovate and come up with products that challenge.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/management-lessons-i-learned-working-at-apple-2010-7#dont-play-the-feature-game-with-your-competition-6#ixzz0vVfsseFG

We have all seen the time machine cliché.  Homer Simpson goes back in time and alters the time continuum by sneezing on a dinosaur and when he returns to the future donuts are not food but rather it rains donuts.  In Back to the Future II, Biff, while in the future, steals a sports almanac and returns to the past to win all of his sports bets and ends up marrying Marty’s (Michael J Fox) mother.   In that insane move Hot Tub Time Machine time traveler but loser Lou stayed back in the past and becomes super cool and super rich by creating some things he had seen in the future – the rock band Motely Lue and Internet search engine Lougle.

Pursuing luck is an attempt to alter the future time continuum.   That is if you keep doing the same old things everyday your future will likely follow a predictable rut.   If you mix it up, do different things and change your interactions with the world around you will alter the space/time continuum and create a different future for yourself.

WARNING: This post is for males only.

To get lucky (or unlucky) we must take risks.  The more risks the more luck.   So what is a catalyst to take risk?  Tonight on  the ABC show Catalyst they answered this question – for males at least.   It’s hot chicks.

Catalyst’s story was about a psychology experiment where the scientists compared the risk taking manoeuvres of skateboarders performing difficult tricks as a hot chick watched vs performing the same tricks as a dude watched.  And surprise surprise the “to cool for school” skateboarders aborted the tricks less when performing for the blonde in the white lab coat.   When performing for the guy in the lab coat they really could not give a stuff and pulled out of tricks when they thought they might crash and burn.

So there you have it men.  If you want to get lucky hang around hot chicks.

I fully appreciate the somewhat circular argument that if you are hanging around hot chicks you are probably already lucky, but the lesson still is: hang around more hot chicks, take more risks and enjoy more luck.

Girls, is there a hormonal catalyst to your luck?  Please comment with your ideas and I will see if I can find a psychology experiment to support it.

Here is the ABC program:

Read about The Pursuit of Luck in this article that appeared in NineMSN Money today.

By Business Consultant Jason Bresnehan.

You have to embrace chaos – life  might just astonish you

Leon Gettler’s article the Luck of the entrepreneur in Fast Company interviews Jason Bresnehan.