How much of your career is down to ‘luck’?
This article builds on the essay What we might become, a topology of sharing and forms part of the research into my next book on human sensemaking.
When you describe your career do you ever use the term ‘luck’ to describe past events, which in retrospect turned out to be pivotal?
How a person frames this question usually provides greater insight about them than their answer, so let’s break down why.
A simple definition of ‘luck’ is where the outcome of an event is attributed to chance and is assessed as either positive or negative ( Figure 1 ). For example:
Anna is queuing for 30-minutes at a bakery counter, and as she reaches the front of the line she purchases the last available loaf of bread (Figure 1, A1) . Alternatively, the person proceeding her in the queue purchases the last available loaf of bread (A2) .
Anticipation of the event and an emotional attachment to a preferred outcome ( Figure 2, A1 ) nudges consideration of alternatives outcomes that can be compared and prioritised ( A2-A6 ). If the outcome has a very low probability ( A7 ) this pushes the assessment to one of the extremes ( A2 or A6 ).
