28 Feb 2020
Ep. 055: Do you believe in LUCK?
Today's episode highlights the fascinating topic of luck.
It explores important questions such as: (1) Do you believe in luck? (2) Have you experienced luck in your life, career or startup? (3) What role does luck play, if any, in a startup? (4) Can luck be created for oneself, or do some people just have more luck than others?
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Top Takeaways from this Episode:
(1) Simply being alive and healthy is, itself, the great foundation of luck. We take much of life and its resources for granted -- and there's so much luck available to us, regardless of our weaknesses or starting point.
(2) You have the power to increase your luck in a very simple way. Simply, you can do it by setting a goal. When you set a goal and move towards it, it’s a proven principal that the world delivers more luck to you.
Transcript:
John Benzick: Greetings, everyone, John Benzick here, welcome once again to the Product Launch Rebel podcast. As always, if you like the podcast, share it with others and post a review on Apple Podcasts.
You know, the other day, I was asked to speak on an entrepreneurship panel on the topic of luck and how it relates, if at all, to the notion of successfully starting a business. It was a fascinating topic, so I thought I’d extend the conversation to you guys.
During that panel, we were asked questions such as:
Do you believe in luck?
Have you experienced luck in starting your business?
What role does luck play, if any, in a startup?
Can luck be created for oneself, or do some people just have more luck than others?
As I considered these questions, I expressed that, when intersecting with hard work and perseverence, and luck can be, and often is, a factor in successful startups. Not all of the panel participants felt the same, but
Consider that there’s a spectrum of situations that can occur for entrepreneurs;
On one end of the spectrum, unprepared or disadvantaged entrepreneurs can succeed with their startups, sometimes wildly, when they are in the right place at the right time for their product to be accepted by the market. A startup can succeed in spite of an entrepreneur’s or even a product’s imperfections.
On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen very experienced and highly skilled entrepreneurs that have outright failed in their startups, when the hidden market conditions surrounding them conspire against them.
Now, of course, one of the key elements of whether or not a startup succeeds is the leader of the startup.
But what I’m saying here is that there’s another key driver, and often a more powerful one, which is market timing – which often includes the key element of luck. Not always, but often, the entrepreneur has to be somewhat lucky to correctly time the demand of the market. Even if one is slightly too early, or slightly too late, it could effect their survival.
So, despite the level of entrepreneurial skill and persistence, sometimes, luck plays a huge factor.
As an example, I read a lot of rock-n-roll biographies, and what I often see is that a lot of famous musicians, especially those from pre-internet days, when they look back at their careers, they claim that luck has played a key role in that success. They were in the right place at the right time when they were discovered, or by pure accident, they were centered in a confluence of trends, bringing them a tidal wave of success, despite their artistic weaknesses.
Another example, in business, is if an industry is consolidating, either on the buyer side, or the manufacturer side. Industry maturity and consolidation (i.e.
