Some entrepreneurs just seem to have more luck than others. But luck in business isn’t entirely about, well, luck. There’s a popular saying that “you make your own luck.” This principle is a central chapter in the new book I’m cowriting for Harvard Business Review Press. Luck—alongside heart, smarts and guts—turns out to be a critical factor in entrepreneurial DNA.
Over the course of hundreds of interviews and other interactions with entrepreneurs, my co-authors Richard Harrington and Tsun-yan Hsieh and I found that while there are certain types of luck that you can’t influence (such as where you were born), there’s still much that you can—including business luck.
How? Being luckier in business is fundamentally about having the right attitude. And the secret behind having the right attitude is practicing these three traits:
1. HUMILITY. Having a lucky attitude begins with an awareness of your own limitations. You need enough self-confidence to command the respect of others, but that attitude needs to be balanced with the knowledge that there’s much you simply don’t know. It’s humility that humanizes leaders and creates the openness that allows them to take on our next trait—intellectual curiosity.
2. INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY. Humility gives people the capacity to be intellectually curious. People who are arrogant are less likely to question their personal assumptions about the world. Business builders who are intellectually curious have a voracious appetite to learn more about just about anything. And ultimately they’re luckier because they’re more willing to meet new people, ask new questions and go to new places.
3. OPTIMISM. If humility is the foundation for intellectual curiosity, then an optimistic disposition gives one the belief and energy that more, better, faster is always possible. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: More luck tends to come to those who believe in possibility—to those who see the good in something before they see the bad.
The basic equation for developing a lucky attitude then is quite simple. It starts with having the humility to be self-aware, followed by the intellectual curiosity to ask the right questions and concludes with the belief that something better is always possible. This is the mindset of the lucky business builder. And it’s one that most people can have if they’re willing to believe.
Anthony Tjan is CEO, managing partner and founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball. An entrepreneur, investor and senior adviser, Tjan has become a recognized business builder.
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