Return on Luck

“Luck is something that happens to you, largely out of your control. Return on luck is what you make of your luck (good or bad) when it comes. The question is not whether you will get luck, both good luck and bad, but what you do with the luck that you get.” Jim Collins

Every leader I know can name a moment that changed everything. It may have come in the form of a phone call they never expected, or a mentor who took a chance on them, or a crisis that landed on their desk one morning. None of us chose those moments. But every one of us chose what we did next.

In his new book, What to Make of a Life, Jim Collins comes back to an idea he and Morten Hansen introduced more than a decade ago: return on luck. I have been sitting with it all week, reflecting on my own life and leadership journey.

Collins defines a luck event simply: you didn't cause it, it carries a significant consequence, good or bad, and it comes as a surprise. He delineates luck as ‘who’ luck, ‘what’ luck and ‘zeit-luck’. Who luck is when a person randomly crosses our path and then significantly affects our life. What luck is luck that is a consequential event or series of events. And, zeit-luck is luck that involves the big social, cultural political, economical or global events that can play an outsized role in our lives.

Researchers Kathleen Mitchell, Al Levin and John Krumboltz push the idea one step earlier. In their 1999 paper on "planned happenstance," they argue that chance events are not only inevitable but often useful, and that we can make more of them happen. Curiosity, persistence, flexibility, optimism and a willingness to take risks put us in luck's path. Levin's advice is my favorite summary: "Have a game plan, but write in pencil." Collins asks what we do with the luck we get. Planned happenstance asks how we invite more of it.

What This Asks of Leaders

Be ready before the moment arrives. We can't schedule luck, but we can build the skills, relationships and reserves that let us act when it shows up. Preparation is how we earn the right to a return.

Go where luck can find you. Good luck rarely announces itself. It looks like an awkward introduction, a stretch assignment, or a problem no one else wants. Stay curious, say yes more often, and lean in before the opportunity is obvious.

Make a return on bad luck, too. Some of my most important growth as a superintendent came from moments I would never – ever - have chosen. ‘Bad’ luck tests our character, and how we respond is something that forges our courage and something our teams never forget.

Honor your "who luck." Think about the people who opened doors for you. Then ask whose "who luck" you could become.

Choose with discipline. Collins also cautions that not every lucky break deserves a yes. (That one’s a hard one!) A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he says, "is merely a fact, it's not a reason." A strong return comes from the opportunities that fit who you are.

Luck  - good and bad - will keep showing up, uninvited and unannounced. The courage is in what we make of it.

This week, think of one lucky moment, good or bad, that shaped your leadership. What return did you make on it? And what luck might be sitting in front of you right now, waiting for you to notice? And…. Where might YOU be someone else’s WHO luck?