Category Archives: Luck

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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-By Jaime Willis

“Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Actually, around here, we like to call March 17th the “Matt Leedham National Holiday” as it is one of his favorite days of the year! (Matt is grateful that that is the largest size photo I could find of him in his holiday get-up!) In Matt’s honor, we’ve turned our webpage green for the day.



On a holiday filled with talk of luck, I want to dispel the myth of luck. You aren’t missing out on life because you are unlucky. The other person didn’t get the job because they were luckier than you. Luck just doesn’t exist.

What does exist is PREPARATION and OPPORTUNITY. When you are prepared to take advantage of an opportunity, you may get “lucky.” How can you prepare to be lucky?
  • Start each day with a positive attitude and outlook. “You can complain that roses have thorns or you can rejoice that thorns have roses.” It is all in your outlook. Since an optimistic attitude has been proven to make a positive difference in recovering from illness and achieving goals, you can activate your ‘luck’ first with a great attitude.
  • Do your research. You may have always wished you could be on the Today how. But have you ever once done the research to see what it takes to get on an episode? What stories are they looking for? How do they book guests? How ‘timely’ do stories need to be? If you have the answers to all these questions, you can craft a piece or a pitch that best meets the show’s needs. You may get ‘lucky’ enough to get on the air.
  • Ask for help. We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, networking is amazing. The world is getting smaller and smaller — it is surprising how often someone you never would have guessed has a contact, lead, or information on something you are trying to accomplish. For example, think how many parents your kid’s teacher knows who are all in different fields? How about the barista that serves the same regulars every day? I was once connected to a private car auctioneer through the parent of one of the kids I tutored, just because I asked how the student was able to get such a good deal on his vehicle.
  • Have your resources at the ready. I graduated from law school in 2003 and passed the New York Bar that same year. However, for the next six years, if you had desperately needed a lawyer and were willing to pay me a MILLION dollars to fix a legal problem for you, I could not have done it. Why? Even though I’d spent seven years in school and another several months studying for the toughest exam I’ve ever had to take, I stopped just short of the finish line. Because I never went back up to Albany, New York to get sworn in. For SIX YEARS after I passed the bar, I couldn’t say I was a licensed attorney. You cannot get ‘lucky’ if you don’t have the right resources available to take advantage of the opportunity. In 2009, I finally went up and got sworn in. Now, if a legal opportunity came up, I could take advantage of it.
  • Keep your eyes open for opportunity. Opportunity rarely comes in the exact packaging you’d expect. A lot of opportunities come with a whole heap of hard work attached to them. The perfect job for you might be in a city across the country. Your dream home may be lovingly updated in the latest ’70′s style. Don’t edge away from opportunity just because it requires a leap of faith or hard work – go for it!
I hope are preparing for your next opportunity today! I know I am.

Are Your Receptors Open?

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-by Matt Leedham

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” – Buddhist Proverb

Along the lines of my thoughts on luck, opportunity and coincidence seem to happen a lot more to those that are prepared to receive them. Just as the teacher appears for the ready student, so does “aha!” moments for ready achievers.

Have you ever noticed that when you learn a new word, you start hearing and seeing that word multiple times over the following weeks?

Let me give you an obscure example. Two weeks ago, I learned of the word ‘heuristic.’ I was reading a classic book on positivity and the power of thought called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. This book, originally published in 1937, is credited for being the first (and by some accounts, the best) modern-day, personal development book ever written. The word ‘heuristic’ was introduced in the book in regard to the human mind not needing exhaustive information to make decisions – rather, we have become quite good at making very good decisions with limited information. I actually wrote about it in Trust Your Gut.

To me, this was a completely unknown word – I was sure that I had never seen it or heard it before. How, then, is it possible that just 8 days later in San Antonio, I heard an author/speaker use that word in reference to marketing tactics?

Is it more likely that a word that had never crossed my path before, all of a sudden presented itself to me twice in 8 days? After decades of reading, studying, and listening to words, that’s quite the coincidence, wouldn’t you say?!

What’s more likely is that I have seen or heard that word many times before, but never bothered to look it up or ask questions. I just let it wash over me and therefore, it didn’t really exist in my vocabulary.

This happens with inspiration too. It happens with dreams and aspirations as well. Too often, we don’t allow our receptors to be open to opportunity or “luck” or “chance” or “coincidence” (quotations used intentionally as I don’t really believe in these things).

This is why we encourage our workshop attendees to do the following:

  1. Prime themselves to be positive
  2. Visualize their future in great detail
  3. Write their visions on paper
  4. Tell others about their vision

If you do these things, your receptors are now open for business!

And if done with sincere positivity, you will literally be amazed by the opportunities that seem to present themselves to you. You will begin to see patterns and resources you didn’t see before. You will connect the dots and things will begin to happen.

Know what you want and be open to receiving. Be prepared for good things to come!


Building Your Network

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- by Jaime Willis
“Anything that is worth having is worth asking for.” – Melba Colgrove
Last December, I decided that one of my goals for 2010 was to lose weight. My goal was SMART – lose 60 pounds by my birthday in August. My goal was aligned with my core values and personal vision. Having lost (and gained) lots of weight over the years, I have a pretty good scientific understanding of what it would take for me to lose the weight (move more, eat less, eat better).
But, I knew I would need accountability to stick with my goal and I wanted a coach to help me learn more about strength training and toning, something I didn’t know a lot about. This is the point where a lot of people derail in their goal-getting. They have strong goals, they even have a good idea of what it will take to accomplish it, but they don’t properly activate their network.
How can you activate your own network to help you reach your goals?
Tell people your goal.

Really, it is that simple. Tell people what you are trying to accomplish. Tell lots of people. In my case, I started in December, before I had even started my weight loss goal, that I was going to be “frolicking” in 2010. (I say frolic, not diet, because I know that successful weight loss isn’t a temporary state of mind, but a “Food Related Lifestyle Choice” – FRLC, pronounced frolic.) I told my co-workers. I told my friends. I told my family. I told people who I knew would be supportive of my goal and would help keep me accountable to starting (and finishing) my goal.

Ask for specific help.

I knew I wanted to get serious about exercise and I chose to use a personal trainer. I set aside some of my income to pay for a trainer ahead of time, I researched online about what sort of things I wanted out of a trainer, and then I asked my network to tell me about their experiences with personal trainers.
Plenty of people have varied and conflicting advice about losing weight. By asking my network for specific advice, I was able to get the exact kind of help I needed to achieve my goal. A friend and co-worker recommended a trainer she knew. I met with the trainer, and he has been working with me ever since. And, I even got a discounted rate because I was referred by a friend!
Asking for specific help ensures a better response. A friend of mine recently asked her entire facebook audience if they wanted to buy her Chicago condo. While it is unlikely that there was a condo-buyer in the audience, I bet there were a lot of people who could have helped in other ways. (Find a successful Chicago real-estate agent. Find someone who can offer advice about staging homes. Find someone who knows how to market the property best. Find someone who knows about becoming a landlord and renting out the condo until the housing market improves). If you aren’t getting the result you’d hoped for, try asking a slightly different question.

Don’t be afraid to seek assistance.


Here’s the thing about networks — a great network is a diverse network. It’s pretty likely that most of your closest friends are similar to you — they went to similar schools, had similar upbringings, do similar jobs, etc. You want to reach beyond the comfort of your immediate circle and to people who know people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. This is why I made sure to tell my coworkers about my weight loss goal. My office is fairly big, and we are pretty diverse in age, geography, educational experiences, etc. If I had just told my friends about my goal, I would not have the trainer I use today. I had to reach out to a diverse group of people to get my desired result.
Matt and I have been asking some big name folks to do interviews for our TGIF interview series on Fridays. At first, I was a bit scared to ask people way WAY outside of my network to do an interview. But we’ve had great responses from everyone we’ve asked so far! These responses have allowed me to feel more comfortable asking others to contribute. (If you want to do an TGIF interview, email me!)

Just do it!

I cannot stress enough how important it is to reach out to others when trying to achieve a goal. You will be flabbergasted at how “lucky” you are when you do so. Whenever I ask, people seem to have just the right connection I need to make, even when it seems like the people I told would have no experience or expertise in the area I am seeking help.
For example, when Matt recently threw down the goal gauntlet and decided to begin learning Korean, he had no idea that I have free access to Rosetta Stone that he can use to aid him in his goal. Another friend of mine began teaching a college course on communications and did not know that I had recently written a chapter of a curriculum on non-verbal communication that I was able to share with him.
The New Year is just a few days away–start networking now!

The Thing About Luck

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- by Matt Leedham

So…the thing about luck is…

There is no luck.

Sorry. But luck has nothing to do with success. I’ll admit there’s a little luck involved with winning the lottery, but that’s about it.

I’ve been saying this for years, especially after an old mentor of mine told me that there is no such thing as luck. In fact, I remember him saying that it’s almost insulting when someone says you’re lucky for the position you are in or the opportunities you have. He was right.

Luck = being prepared for opportunity.

Some people walk around with their eyes open. Some people walk around every corner of their lives looking for opportunity with their eyes wide open. Just like in relationships, when your receptors are open, opportunities present themselves. And when you are ready for them, things happen.

Guess what. This isn’t just my brilliant theory. Professor Richard Wiseman is at it again! Check out the psychology of luck, where Prof. Wiseman’s study concludes that “lucky” people tend to employ these four principles:

  1. Maximize Chance Opportunities (expand your network and listen more)
  2. Listen to Your Gut (hunches are creativity and opportunity speaking to you)
  3. Expect Good Fortune (haven’t we mentioned the power of positivity before?)
  4. Turn Bad Luck to Good (again, stay positive and keep bad moments in the moment)

So, please don’t use luck as an excuse. Other people aren’t luckier than you, and you don’t have “bad luck.” Good things happen and bad things happen. What we do with it is entirely up to us.

Stay open. Stay positive. Expect good things. Put yourself out there. Talk to people. Share. Receive.

Make things happen.