CHAPTER 0 Creating and Sustaining Good Fortune in Your Work "Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune is always here." -JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE I make only one promise: your life will not be the same. What I offer is more than advice, more than hope. I offer you a mirror. In it you will see you are more powerful than you know. I offer you a map. With it you will discover you are closer than you know to a career of good fortune. You've heard it said that chance governs us all, but I tell you that fortune is not arbitrary. There are the lucky: the lottery winners filing for bankruptcy, the gamblers betting away their winnings, the trust fund babies trapped in apathy. They know nothing of good fortune. Their lives are grains of sand slave to the ebbing and flowing tide, sand castles for only an hour. Then there are the flourishing: those who outlive, outwork, and out love-to whom good things always seem to come. They inhabit a foundation from which positive happenstance seems to grow in abundance. Yet their good fortune springs not from mere chance but from the rare abilities to see what the majority miss and to exploit what most think uncontrollable. They are not lucky, and their fortune is no accident. It is said that misfortune chases us all, but I tell you that fortune pursues you more swiftly. It reaches for you. You must learn only to seize it where it dwells-in the obvious and obscure places all around you-and to sow its seeds wherever you go. I will give you the eyes to see good fortune and the tools to keep it on your side from this day forward. ALL YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN There is more happening around you than you might realize. It is said that you find what you are looking for, but I tell you that if you learn to look around and beyond what you seek, you will discover things more valuable, timely, and true. Perhaps I am being too mystical. Or perhaps I am confirming something you've sensed all along. I am speaking of serendipity-what some call "positive happenstance." Most believe it comes capriciously, without hint of how, when, or why. The jobless woman takes lunch alone in Central Park on a cool autumn day. As she picks at her bland leftovers, a businesswoman approaches to ask for directions, and in an instant, a connection is made and her dream job is found. We like to say she was lucky . or that the universe had mercy on her . or that it was a matter of finally being in the right place at the right time. But what if it was more than a chance occurrence? What if I told you she'd been undervalued by her former employer for years . and that she'd finally left the company and moved to Manhattan to forge a new path . and that she'd always loved autumn in New York and especially in Central Park? Perhaps such observations would expand your notion about what happened and whether she had some control over her good fortune. With a rare combination of four skills, you will begin to see and seize the momentous opportunities around you before they have passed you by. Opportunities of which you were not previously aware-often, the only opportunities that will enlarge your career path and increase your propensity for success and fulfillment every day. Most are blind to these opportunities, and this is the primary reason so many workers are uninspired, merely putting in time to meet unremarkable goals. It has been said that self-knowledge is the mother of success, but success is first born of something else. Self-knowledge is the offspring of experience-we learn of ourselves through that which our senses take in-and experience is the offspring of the opportunities we have pursued. Opportunity is the true mother of success. Opportunity is the primary catalyst for sustaining good fortune in your career or company. And it builds momentum quicker than any other success factor. One right opportunity skillfully pursued births a host of additional opportunities that would otherwise have never existed. A middle manager steps off the corporate track to launch an online venture with a close friend. With a little money and a lot of heart, the two succeed in putting their business on the map in the first year. The business multiplies exponentially the following year and is featured in two major publications-one a cover story. In the third year, this once-small venture garners a large offer from a Web-based giant. The acquisition not only opens the doors to a host of new business ventures, it also initiates requests for both partners to consult large organizations on how to differentiate Web presence and small organizations on how to establish Web presence. The former middle manager also receives a sizable advance for a forthcoming book. Three years earlier, there was a middle manager with a predictable paycheck and an inside track to a corner office in ten years. Perhaps not a bad career path, but certainly not what it could be. With one opportunity seen and seized rightly, the individual enlarged the field before him and changed his fortune forever. With the subsequent opportunities that bloomed, he then created a momentum of good fortune that was his to preserve. The same is available to you. You must only learn to see and grow opportunities rightly. The significance and impact of your work has more to do with the momentum of opportunities you pursue than anything else. The quantity of opportunities is a smaller matter. The quality of opportunities is everything. This explains why a green twentysomething can birth Facebook while fortysomethings everywhere struggle to make ends meet-or why more people became millionaires during the Great Depression than during any other era of American history, including the dot-com boom. Opportunities are always present, and rightly pursuing one can forever change the landscape of one's fortune. The opportunities you see and grow determine the fortune of your career or corporate venture. Self-knowledge can give you insight. Experience can give you confidence. But the two are tamed without the right opportunities. One right opportunity pursued can elevate the potential of any career and any organization. THE SCIENCE OF GOOD FORTUNE We speak of things like "overnight success" and "a stroke of luck" as though they are shrouded in mystery. I will show you that most changes in fortune-those outside of betting luck-are no mystery at all. They are the result of a rare combination of four skills employed on a regular basis. Not every fortunate person is aware she is employing these activities, which explains why most experience good fortune only rarely and randomly. But those who learn to employ the quartet on a regular basis discover a reservoir of power greater than self-knowledge, greater than intuition, and greater than experience. And they thus tap into a reservoir of potential most never reach. The ability to earn serendipity will elevate a career or company quicker than any single force. If sustained well, it yields a tradition of success. At times we witness one who seems to be in the midst of a lucky streak. But what appears to be one opportunity, one windfall, one great experience after another is actually the natural by-product of certain skills applied on a continual basis. You see, serendipity is not governed by chance alone. I must concede there is an art to good fortune-certain occurrences cannot be fully explained or controlled. A middle-aged couple strolls through a Vegas casino on their way to meet friends for dinner. On a whim, the husband slides one quarter into a slot machine and hits a six-figure jackpot. We speak of his "good fortune," but such inexplicable occurrences are better deemed "luck." While they occur every day all over the world, they can be neither controlled nor explained. At best, we can appreciate them. But to lean on such lucky breaks-to lean on the art of good fortune-is no strategy at all. It is merely far-fetched hope. The odds of success are never in your favor. However, there is also a science to good fortune. It can be earned, not by will, force, or manipulation, but by the application of four skills to your workdays. This rare blend of skills taps into an immense power that few ever take the time to understand, let alone master. Yet those that do hold sway not only in the workplace but also in society at large. I call the four skills the Four Leaves, and together they represent an uncommon crop-a propensity for good fortune that, when well managed, yields a tradition of success with opportunities perpetually budding. These Four Leaves are 1. Broadened Observation: The practice of seeing with circular vision 2. Extensive Innovation: The practice of sowing entrepreneurial seeds 3. Strategic Focus: The practice of growing seeds of greatest potential 4. Generous Purpose: The practice of sharing the harvest I call the one who makes regular use of the Four Leaves a serendipiter: a socially conscious individual, or organization, who inspires innovation and initiative and thus propels good fortune for himself and his community. Applied daily, the Four Leaves expand the field of opportunities before you and all serendipiters, increasing your leverage, your influence, and your propensity for success. The...
