How to Get Lucky

I’m terrible at math, but there’s something I remember about the chapter on probability in high school. Something like — chances are higher with higher occurrences.

I forgot about it completely until the pandemic when I wanted to build a brand online to quit my 9–5 and become a full-time writer. I started studying top writers and analysed their blueprints.

They weren't lucky at all.

Most of them showed up a lot for a damn long time to be where they are today. But nobody sees online personalities that way because we see them where they are right now and overlook what they did to reach here.

So here’s a little something on how to get lucky.

The Obvious One — Showing Up

There’s no way around this, no shortcuts. Some tricks may help you for a while, but that high is short-lived. Following trends may give you likes and followers but won’t build a genuine audience because you won’t be known for anything.

Show up and put stuff out there consistently.

Un-Common Sense

A common statement I hear is

“I’ve been showing up for months, and I’m not getting traction.”

And it’s true. I see their posts and they’re showing up consistently, but they barely get any likes or engagement.

Now what I’m going to tell you is a secret that everyone who you think has ‘made it’ has used:

• look at people who are where you want to be

• study their growth paths (via blogs, interviews)

• see what helped them in their journey and what didn’t

Learn from this and apply it to your journey. This will help you improve your craft and your trajectory towards your goals.

If you’re one of those people who is showing up and isn’t getting traction, it is probably because you’re trying to reinvent the wheel.

Be Real

This is the most famous advice and is used the least. Why? Because you probably think you are being real, so this doesn’t apply to you.

Pause.

Analyse your strengths, core values, and goals.

And then create accordingly.

Don’t Fixate on This

Sometimes people tell me that they’ve done everything I tell them but aren’t getting results. They will refresh their likes, look at other people succeeding and feel bad.

Don’t fixate on your work. Improve and move to the next piece.

Don’t be obsessed with the outcome because that won’t help. Be so good at what you do that you attract opportunities. Become outcome-obsessed.

Keep showing up but also keep learning and improving else the needle won’t move.

Be Process Obsessed

Love the craft you’re doing and

• the journey becomes smoother

• you will want to improve

• it feels easier to show up

• you feel happy every day!

Be obsessed with showing up and improving your process. When you detach from external metrics and focus on this, good things will happen to you.

That’s what people call ‘lucky’.

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All the best!

Love,
N

This article was earlier published in my free weekly newsletter that has 12,000+ readers - Side Hustle Saturdays.