I grew up believing my success depended on how hard I tried. That it depended on the number of times I fell and got up. That successful people had to go through the same.
I am older now, and understand statistics better. The numbers tell us about two thirds of the world’s billionaires are self made. On the other hand, it tells us there are 2,755 billionaires in the world. 2,755 out of 7.674 billion people. That’s one billionaire for 2.78 million people.
The only good news here is you’re more likely to become a billionaire than you are to win the lottery jackpot by a factor of almost 20 (see here). However, the odds are still incredibly low.
So, being realistic, I set my bar a bit lower. I would still like to be able to retire early and focus on my passions. Not an easy goal, but achievable. How do I go about achieving this goal?
I recently came across an interesting formula. Entrepreneur Jason Roberts suggests you can control your luck, to a degree. He suggests you can increase your odds of getting lucky by taking more action around your passion and sharing it with as many people as you can.
Roberts coined the term Luck Surface Area. It is the amount of action you take multiplied by the number of people you shared your passion with. Increasing any of these two factors improves your chances of success.
It makes sense, really. The more time you spend on your passion, the better you get at it. The more people you share it with, the more likely it is you’ll reach someone who can make a significant change in your life.
So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and get lucky!
Optimising My Life 