The Get Lucky List

It is middle of the night as am writing this. I was just reading an old book (Liberation Management, pages 612–614) on my shelf that had this chapter on luck. It just fired my imagination and I just had to put my adapted version of this down.

Luck does play a big part in success.If you at times find yourself throwing your hands up in the air in despair, try a few of these strategies to get lucky.

If you are the planning types and believe meticulous and orderly plans are the only way forward and luck is just a by product, then by all means keep at it...

Have a little fun. Get lucky. Try these strategies..

1.  Chop off the cribbing. Get on with something.
2.  Shoot it. Don’t just keep aiming.
3.  Fire one in the dark. you never know.
4.  “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”—G.K. Chesterton
5.  Just Start.
6.  Read. Read. Read. 
7.  Where you will be same time next year hugely depends on what you read and who you met.
8.  Read stuff not just bestsellers. Got to think differently.
9.  Travel. Visit new places. Insights guaranteed.
10.  Just don’t drink yourself nuts when you travel. Then insights guaranteed.
11.  Reinvent old hobbies. Photography. Gardening. Sports. Whatever. Do.
12.  Take up a sport. Have some fun.
13.  Work with weird people. 
14.  Ask really dumb questions. “How come a CD can only take about 20 songs?” Somebody asked that stupid question and came up with an iPod.
15.  Failure is good. Its indicates that you stretch. Pursue a few failures of the past. Give it one more try. Just one. Do it in the craziest way you can think of. Go nuts.
16.  Have a ‘different day’ tomorrow. Do everything that you normally do differently. That will get you thinking.
17.  Listen to everyone today. Get ideas through questions.
18.  Don’t listen to anyone today. Just do what your gut says at supersonic mad speed.
19.  Get fired. Maybe the best that will happen to you. 
20.  Don’t hang out with people who think they are unlucky. It rubs off.
21.  Hang out with crazy people.
22.  No idea ever came from a plan. It just came. Free up your mind. Get intuitive. How?
23.  Delegate everything on your plate.
24.  Delegate more. Have time.
25.  Destroy protocol.Challenge your boss on something. Be intelligent. Have an outcome in mind. GOOOOOOOO.
26.  Take a risk. Go take someone from another function for lunch. Enjoy. 
27.  Open up. Make everyone like you. Bare all details at work. for eg if your are a business owner, make everyone a business person with access to all financials.
28.  Take a two month break from work. Please use that Leave.... Dount count pennies. USE IT.
29.  Spend 15 days out of every 30 - OUTSIDE. Customer. Vendor. Distributor. Whoever. BE OUT. The opportunities are there. They are not sitting on your conference table.
30.  Don’t balance. Don’t let others balance. Spread confusion. Ask confusing questions.
31.  Learn from the Parliament. Disorganize. Disorganize everything. Bureaucracy and Politics will break down.
32.  Attack your corporate culture. 
33.  Encourage people to attack it too.
34.  Loosen up.
35.  Wear jeans to office. Change things. Be comfortable.
36.  And then (AGAIN) Get out of office. Nothing inspiring happened at your table for as long as you have sat there. MOVE.
37.  Work from home for a week.
38.  DONT HELP ANYONE. Let people who work for you fall flat on their face and learn.
39.  “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”—Helen Keller - Dare Today. Something from this list. DO.
40.  Get the execution right. The strategy will take care of itself.
41.  Disrespect Tradition for a day. Discover your own beliefs. Grow up.
42.  Start rewarding excellent failures. Yours’ too. They are worth far more than your 10% income hikes.
43.  Celebrate a full day. For what? For being alive. 
44.  Success is relationships. Period. Go work on two of them today.
45.  Observe children playing in a field. Go see what you really were a few years back. Learn. You always had fun then.
46.  Join a public speaking forum. Practice. Become confident. It’s a big boost to ego.
47.  Latest Fortune 500 report proves that Women are better leaders than Men. How many are there in your team???? HIRE THEM TO LEAD.
48.  “Do one thing every day that scares you.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
49.  Do something that will make you feel that your are living, not just existing. Do it now.
50.  “We eat change for breakfast!”—Harry Quadracci, founder, QuadGraphics - That should be your plan for daily luck!! Keep changing it.

That’s my 50. Do these come close to being you. Or do the opposites of this 50 comes close to being you. I thought it might so heres no. 51. Chill out. Life isn’t serious. Have some fun. Let go.

Chetan Walia