How to become luckier by taking risks: 3 simple steps

 We usually think of luck as a sudden lightning strike, but Tina Seelig, a Stanford University lecturer and author of dozens of books on business, thinks otherwise. She is convinced that luck is more like a constantly blowing wind, catching a jet of which is quite simple if you know how.

1. Leave your comfort zone and take small risks

Change the relationship with yourself. Don't be afraid to take risks by leaving your usual comfort zone. This behavior is typical of children who learn the world and learn new skills. With age, we stop doing this and freeze in place.

To succeed, you need to constantly take small risks: intellectual, financial, emotional, social. Solving a new task is an intellectual risk, talking to a stranger is a social one, expressing feelings to a dear person is an emotional one.

The thing is that even minor risks add up to great luck, if not immediately, then in the future. You don't lose anything, but you get a potential opportunity.

In confirmation of this, Tina cites a story from her own life. Instead of the usual sleep on the plane, she decided to talk to a neighbor who turned out to be a publisher. Seelig ventured to take another chance and showed him the application for publication of the book. The fellow traveler read it, but politely refused.

Nevertheless, they exchanged contacts, and a couple of months later Tina invited him to a class about the future of the publishing business.

A few months later, she sent him a video of a student project that a random fellow traveler liked so much that he wanted to meet with the authors and invited them to write a book.

One of the editors of the publishing house asked if Tina wanted to write a book herself, and she showed him the same application that his boss rejected not so long ago. Less than two weeks later, a contract was signed, and subsequently the book sold a million copies.

2. Thank others and appreciate relationships

The second step is to change the relationship with others. All the people who help you through life play a big role in achieving your goals. Without thanking the person, you will not close the circle and miss a new opportunity. By doing something for you, people are wasting their time and effort, so it's important to thank them for it.

Tina explains this thesis with the help of another story. She heads three scholarship programs and often receives responses from non-competitive students. Some complain, others ask how to improve, and some just thank.

This is exactly what a guy named Brian did, who wrote that he had been rejected twice, but was still glad of the experience and grateful for the opportunity.

His letter touched Tina, and she met with the student in person. After talking, they decided to launch a joint project, which later turned into an independent study and helped Brian to found his own company. None of them expected such a success, and after all, everything happened because of an ordinary letter of thanks.

Silig has developed several tactical ways to express gratitude to others. Her favorite technique is to review the schedule of meetings at the end of each day and send thanks to all the people she met. The peculiar ritual takes only a few minutes, and Tina is sure that it makes her luckier.

3. Change your attitude to ideas

Many of us divide ideas into good and bad. However, these two estimates are not enough. Moreover, even the most failed ideas can become outstanding if you look at them from a different angle.

To develop creativity, Tina teaches students to see potential opportunities in bad ideas. One of these tasks is to come up with some of the best and worst concepts of the restaurant business.

In the first category, restaurants on the top of a mountain or a ship with beautiful views were offered, in the second - an institution in a landfill, a dirty tavern with disgusting service and a snack bar serving sushi with cockroaches.

To the surprise of the students, the teacher discarded all the best ideas and forced them to work with the worst. After a few minutes, the concept of a cafe in a landfill transformed into an institution where surplus from gourmet restaurants that are usually thrown away are offered at affordable prices.

A diner with poor service has turned into a training ground for future managers. And the restaurant, where they feed cockroaches, has transformed into a sushi bar with dishes from unusual, exotic ingredients.

All the innovative companies that have turned our lives around and made incredible things commonplace, once upon a time started with crazy ideas. Although at one time everyone around considered them ridiculous and a failure.