How Lucky Are You?

We too often discount the role randomness, luck, and chance play in our lives and the lives of others.

What I read: “How Luck and Chance Shape Your Life” by Bob McKinnon. Published May 15, 2024.

I’m a lucky guy. I’ve said that often. Along with certain things about my innate characteristics and middle-class upbringing, so many luck and chance factors have emerged throughout my life that to not acknowledge those instances would be disingenuous.

Sure, I’ve worked hard. Sure, I’ve leveraged whatever privilege I possess. But the reality of randomness and the luck and chance it manifests must be seen as influencing us all. To not do so is to perhaps give too much credit to individuals seen as accomplished, wealthy, or famous and to misguidedly try to label those less fortunate as simply not working hard enough.

Even literature sometimes alludes to how the randomness of life can pivot our existence in entirely new ways. In A Gentleman in Moscow (paid link) by Amor Towles (one of my favorite novels lately), the main character opines on the luck and chance that influences our life directions and situations.

Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate, and our opinions evolve – if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.

I’m fully aware of the contention of many stating that luck isn’t entirely random but rather it’s when the possibly random opportunity meets your preparation to take advantage of that opportunity.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

- Seneca

I agree with that sentiment, yet our culture, particularly American culture, that worships at the altar of external validations, celebrity, and the lifestyles of the rich and famous, rarely acknowledges the role luck and chance play in our lives, including the lives of those same people they place on pedestals who got there often through as much random luck and chance as by effort.

So, when I read Bob McKinnon’s reflection on Mark Robert Rank’s new book, The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us, (paid link) it struck a chord with me.

While on one level the role of random events in our lives may seem intuitive or obvious, Rank’s book deftly makes the point that we under-appreciate randomness and do so to our own detriment.

Randomness shows itself in every realm of life. The rise and fall of world leaders and movements. Pivotal historical events. Scientific discovery. Sports competition outcomes. College admissions. Prison sentencing. Our biological lineage. Natural disasters. Even the very existence of us and the natural world on our planet.

The importance of understanding how randomness affects everything we do is important because generally we don’t. In the article author’s research, when he asked study subjects what factors were most essential to achieving the American dream, luck ranked 10th of the 11 factors. Rather than acknowledge the role luck inevitably plays in success, they stated that a strong work ethic was the main factor and they chose that factor by a large margin.

Such views skew our perspectives from reality which can lead to everything from ineffective personal life strategies to extremely harsh judgment of others who haven’t benefitted from a perfect alignment of randomness to produce good luck.

We also resist the role of luck in our daily lives because we erroneously believe in a just world. We desperately want to believe that “good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people.” Such beliefs can also lead to us judging others harshly by aligning bad life outcomes as always being the result of the bad people they happen to.

So, why should we recognize how extensively randomness is a factor in our lives?

• By appreciating how often randomness occurs we can foster increased support for the unlucky.

• Acknowledging randomness can foster more empathy and compassion. It can simultaneously encourage us to be more humble by accepting that much of what we’ve achieved or have is due to luck.

• Acknowledging luck creates more luck. This allows us to accept that some things are well beyond our control but to also take advantage of those instances of luck when we see them.

• By accepting how much luck plays a role in life, we increase our gratitude and appreciation for what we already have.

• Knowing that randomness, luck, and chance are sprinkled throughout every aspect of our lives makes life more interesting by shaking up that which is seemingly predetermined and predictable.

I recommend you read the article, and I’ve already ordered Rank’s book. The article concludes with this and it’s a beautiful sentiment.

Such is the power of reflecting and recognizing the randomness all around us. It can inspire action, compassion, and a better life. For ourselves, for others, and for the world.

I’m going to stop writing this post now and go for a walk in my neighborhood. I wonder who I’ll randomly encounter as I do.

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