You know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. People are often blind to the converse. As terribly unfair as life can be, that very unpredictable nature means that no obstacle is truly a bar to success. No matter how unfavorable the odds the little guy can still win out. You might not be lucky enough to have been born in to money, or with fantastic connections or even clutching a winning ticket for the genetic lottery; bestowing upon you good looks, immense intelligence or boundless health and energy. But you never know! In a world were virtue is the only path to success the unfairness of it all would be staggeringly worse than it is now. Hope, in so many ways, rests on unfairness.
So there you go. You really should be happy to live in such an unfair world. No matter what your circumstances might be; you have hope. But that's not good enough for you is it? No, I can see from here that you're not going to be happy sitting back and crossing your fingers. Here perhaps we need to look to the classics for some answers. Now I know Machiavelli isn't a name often heard associated with much that is good. He's remembered as the bringer of immorality. But he did have some interesting things to say about luck. He said that a Prince must learn to master his fortune. That is to say, if you want to be the boss, you have to make your own luck. This suggests that luck isn't some ephemeral concept beyond the reach of human intellect. Luck may be unpredictable but that doesn't mean you can't play the odds.
There's a rather wonderful book called The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I urge you to read it. He argues that we may not be able to predict future events but we can position ourselves in such a way that we are more likely to benefit from what may or may not happen. By understanding the impact rather than trying to predict the likelihood of future events we can prepare for what life throws at us. We can also proactively go looking for luck. Psychologists like Dr. Richard Wiseman have studied what makes people lucky and the fact of the matter is lucky people behave differently. They place themselves in situations where good things can happen to them. Luck, it seems, is something within you. This is where networking comes in.
A professional network is a powerful generator of serendipity. There's a lot more to it than just talking to people and being sociable of course. To begin with you have to make a choice. You have to choose to be genuinely interested in people and what those people do. Ask questions and really mean it. By understanding the people you work with you'll come to understand the myriad possibilities each relationship holds for your personal and professional development. Understand what people are trying to do and why they are motivated to do it. Much of the time this may seem to be of academic interest only but the more connections you make the more chance you'll come across a connection with practical applications. Understand how people are connected to one another. This takes time and the payoff is cumulative. Before too long the connections crystalize and the energy you're putting in starts to pay dividends.
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