Making It as a Creator. What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

Are you sick and tired of waiting for your big break? Here's some advise on how to get lucky as a creator.

Luck Is the Residue of Grand Design.

I’ve often pondered this question of luck. Is it a mystical force, a handout from the gods or does Murphy really have a good-hearted brother that tries to clean up his mess?

Some people are just lucky, right? I don’t think so. I believe they have a secret sauce. Whether they know about it or not is a different story. However, lucky people have something in common. This is not a twelve-step program to being lucky, it’s not a recipe for a magic elixir either. If you’re willing to pull up your bootstraps then let’s change your luck.

I have concluded that luck can be manufactured to a degree. There is no science to this. It’s merely an observation I’ve made and attempt to practice. Kind of like affirmation. You know, speaking your wishes out into the universe.

I’ve been struck by lightning, twice. Now before you say that’s unlucky, I’m using this example for the odds. What are the odds of being struck by lightning? 1 in 1,600,000. Let’s narrow those odds down even more. I live in a part of the country with the highest lighting strike ratio. I know this because of insurance and research. I also lived in a pitched-roof home on top of a hill at the time. We have clockwork-lighting storms in the summer because of the climate. Now all of a sudden, my odds have dropped to 1 in 2667. This is assuming that a normal person would seek shelter during a storm. Well, I was a stupid 20-year-old thinking I was invincible. I wanted to get photos of lightning and exposed myself to the elements. Fortunately, the chances of surviving a lightning strike are at about 90%. I got lucky twice!

The point is that if certain factors are at play the odds are reduced.

Let’s look at the quote again: “Luck is the residue of grand design.” If luck is something left behind, then there is a process involved in creating that residue. The grand design speaks for itself. It’s a thought-out process, with calculated action. So luck is something that happens when a calculated process has been implemented.

We all start as creators just flinging effort at the wall and seeing what sticks. We’re in the explorative phase then and try everything. As time passed, we narrowed our efforts to the content that showed the best return. Now imagine if you change your mindset and make that a calculated action. Imagine if you approached everything with the mindset that this could lead to that.

When you live like this, you’re setting yourself up for luck. You’re coaxing the universe to align in your favor.

I’ll give you another example. Currently, I’m looking for an agent to represent me as a photographer. I could say, I have a portfolio, I’ve done the work, let the agents come to me. Well, that’s going to be like waiting to get struck by lightning for a third time in Antarctica. Instead, I can take the following approach:

• Is my work good enough? Have it reviewed by several professionals and adjust according to their feedback.

• How many agents are there in my area? Reach out to each one of them every other month as my work improves.

• How to get them to notice me? Do they do meetups with industry professionals? Make sure I attend those meetups and introduce myself to have a point of reference in my emails.

• Who do agents want to represent? Research the ones I really want to be represented by and develop my style to fill the gap in their offering to clients.

• What are agents looking at? Do they search for upcoming talent? Enhance my SEO, streamline my social media, share my awards, and produce work that is current and has the potential to become a trend.

Like the lighting, I’m reducing the odds in my favor. I want to get stuck so I give lighting the best chance to find me.

What if an agent receives a brief for a specific product campaign? What if my style suits the brief? What if that email I sent them yesterday stuck in their head and they remember me? What if they connected the face they met at the event when I introduced myself with the email? What if they search my name and my portfolio website is the first to come up in the search results? Perhaps, they will reach out, go and look at my honed Instagram profile, and reply to the mail. It’s a lot of what-ifs but the point is I reduced the odds. I created a grand design.

You have to create a brilliant design and luck will come into play.

By this stage, it’s lying around waiting for you to stumble through it. It’s the same with YouTube, social media, pitching, content creation. If you put in the RIGHT effort you reduce the odds so much that luck will follow. Statisticians might call it “deviation from the expected outcome in probabilistic events” and luck is that deviation. Start controlling the deviation and you can manipulate the outcome.

Last example: Yusuf Dikeç just won a silver medal at the Olympics in a shooting competition. The memes flowing around social media label him as a Turkish dad with a hand in his pocket. Many might deem him to be lucky because he does not seem to fit the part of an Olympic champion (I mean no specialized gear, relaxed attitude, and humble attire). However, he’s been an Olympic athlete since 2008 with a military background and numerous World and European titles in pistol events. He’s put in the effort. He knew exactly what he was doing.

So, creators, to generate luck make sure you design your life for it. Research every aspect, and focus on your goal so intently that there is no space for anything else. Become obsessive, mad even. When you reach this state you will achieve a design so grand luck HAS to follow.

I wish you all the best of luck.