luck

"I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck,
take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often."

Always a chancer, always lucky, he'd fall into a river and come out dry, with fish in his pockets.

A search always starts with Beginner's Luck and ends with the Test of the Conqueror.

We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as it's doing to help us.

Try stuff. I also used to believe that it's better to be smart than lucky because if you're smart you can out-think the competition. I don't believe that anymore--this is not to say that you should strive for a high level of stupidity. My point is that luck is a big part of many successes, so (a) don't get too bummed out when you see a bozo succeed; and (b) luck favors the people who try stuff, not simply think and analyze. As the Chinese say, "One must wait for a long time with your mouth open before a Peking duck flies in your mouth."

Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

Work hard, not in grunt work, but in chasing such opportunities and maximizing exposure to them. This makes living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters--you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity

...maximize the serendipity around you.

Instead of being more organized or controlling in your approach, allow for serendipity. Happy accidents happen when you look side to side or up, not always forward. Don't stop planning. Rather step out of the tunnel. Put yourself in situations that allow for the unexpected. Life is situationally driven. Learning happens in context. Be ready when opportunities arise. The more space you've cleared in your life for something new, the more right things will happen. More or less.

Unlucky people are stuck in routines. When they see something new, they want no part of it. Lucky people always want something new. They're prepared to take risks and relaxed enough to see the opportunities in the first place.