Read Get Lucky and Get Luck on Your Side


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Get LuckyDo you believe in luck?  What about being at the right place at the right time?  Do you think that luck was for everyone else or do you think that you can create your luck?  I’ve been thinking about luck lately and almost as if by magic – I received a review copy of Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business by Thor Muller (@Tempo) and Lane Becker (@Monstro).

In Get Lucky, Thor Muller and Lane Becker explore the possibility that organizations can actually generate their own good luck.  They break their deconstruction of luck into eight primary skills:

  • Motion – Luck happens when people interact with unrelated people and environments.
  • Preparation – Prepare your mind by filling it with facts, being curious and observant – then being open to anything.
  • Divergence – Have the ability and the open mind to use existing resource to create something new.
  • Commitment – Use your skill of divergence and combine it with a commitment to something bigger – a passion, a vision or an overall mission.  The balance lies in being committed to something big enough for options and specific enough for focus.
  • Activation – You can call these intuitive triggers.  As it turns out our unconscious brain makes decisions faster than our conscious brain.  The key to driving serendipitous events is to know and understand what the triggers are and stock your environment with them.
  • Connection – In this chapter, the authors explore how the power of our personal networks and connections can enhance serendipity and solve mysteries.
  • Permeability – This is the skill to seamlessly and effortlessly connect with your customers.  This is a valuable skill and a double edged sword in that it can catapult a company to fame or failure.
  • Attraction – This is really a creation skill.  This chapter outlines companies and organizations who focus on creation first and the details later.

Each of these skills builds on the other.  As you read through each chapter and the stories that the authors share to illustrate the skill, you can’t help but see how each of their examples has layered elements of each skill built right in.

Get Lucky Draws You In And Holds Your Attention

My intention was to breeze through this book and write a review in about a day.  It’s now been well over a week.  The reason for this is simple – I keep getting drawn into the stories, the examples and the interesting scientific research that Muller and Becker have pulled together.

If you enjoyed books like Freakonomics and Outliers, then you will eat Get Lucky up with a spoon.  It reads like a novel from the perspective of being drawn into a story or a topic.  The writing is outstanding, well researched, insightful and easy to understand.

My favorite section in the book has to be the very last section; it’s a sort of appendix of serendipitous events called “Serendipiography.”  This is the coolest, most interesting appendix I’ve run across in a long time.  It contains a series of quotes from the book and resources that will guide you into deeper more detailed information on what led to the quote or event – many of them were serendipitous – of course.

Who Will Enjoy Get Lucky The Most?

Business book junkies like me will absolutely love this book.  It’s fun to read, it’s educational and it will inspire you to create an environment inside your business where luck will bloom.

Business owners and start ups can use the principles in this book to actually make serendipity a more reliable outcome inside their businesses.

Regardless of who you are, you’re going to enjoy Get Lucky.  For more information, check out the Get Lucky web site and read their blog.  It’s an enjoyable read with excellent examples and insights that will bring more luck into your business and your life.

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2 Comments ▼

Ivana Taylor Ivana Taylor is the Book Editor for Small Business Trends. She is responsible for directing the site’s book review program and manages the team of professional book reviewers. She also spearheads the annual Small Business Book Awards. Ivana publishes DIYMarketers, where she shares daily do-it-yourself marketing tips, and is co-author of "Excel for Marketing Managers."

2 Reactions
  1. Another hit to add to your book review hit-list, Ivana!

    Phil Greenberg, the late owner of a local Nissan franchise that I worked at many years ago told me this;

    “I’d rather be lucky than smart.”

    First off, he WAS smart. Secondly, after I digested his statement a bit, it started making sense.

    It’s really all about doing the work in business, but being ready for some luck to be thrown your way.

    If it happens, great. If not…

    This book looks great

    The Franchise King®

  2. Hi Joel – you got that right. What I learned from this book was that our brains perceive certain events as “Lucky” but when they parsed this out into it’s smaller compartments – I can see that Luck is a function of creating a structure and an environment that increases the likelihood of experiences that are ultimately perceived as luck or serendipity. I think that is SO COOL.