How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life - Hardcover

Kaplan, Janice; Marsh, Barnaby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1101986395 ISBN 13: 9781101986394

Verlag: Dutton, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Creator and host of the podcast The Gratitude Diaries and New York Times bestselling author Janice Kaplan examines the phenomenon of luck--and discovers the exciting ways you can grab opportunities and make luck for yourself every day.

After spending a year researching and experiencing gratitude for The Gratitude Diaries, Janice Kaplan is back to tackle another big, mysterious influence in all our lives: luck. And this time she's joined on her journey by coauthor Dr. Barnaby Marsh, a renowned academic who guides her exploration.

Together they uncover the unexpected, little-understood science behind what we call "luck," proving that many seemingly random events are actually under your--and everyone's--control. They examine the factors that made stars like Harrison Ford and Jonathan Groff so successful, and learn the real secrets that made Kate Spade and Warby Parker into global brands. Using original research, fascinating studies, and engaging interviews, Kaplan and Marsh reveal the simple techniques to create luck in love and marriage, business and career, and health, happiness, and family relationships. Their breakthrough insights prove that all of us--from CEOs to stay-at-home moms--can tip the scales of fortune in our favor.

Through a mix of scientific research, conversations with famous and successful people--from academics like Dan Ariely and Leonard Mlodinow to actor Josh Groban--and powerful narrative, How Luck Happens uncovers a fascinating subject in accessible and entertaining style.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Janice Kaplan has enjoyed wide success as a magazine editor, television producer, writer, and journalist. The former editor-in-chief of Parade magazine, she is the author of thirteen popular books including the New York Times bestseller The Gratitude Diaries, which received international praise. She has appeared regularly on network television shows and lives in New York City and Kent, Connecticut.

Dr. Barnaby Marsh is an expert on risk taking. As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he did pioneering research on decision making in complex situations. He works with leaders of major corporations, foundations, and philanthropists, and continues academic research at both the Center for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He lives in New York City and Bridgewater, New Jersey

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Chapter One

Prepare to Be Lucky

Be open to opportunity. . . . Get the information you need. . . . See what you're not seeing. . . . Drive to the intersection of chance, talent, and hard work.

Barnaby's Luck Lab at the Institute for Advanced Study was tucked away amid the beautiful wooded fields of Princeton, New Jersey-a perfect place for thinking big thoughts about the science of making luck. As we took a walk together through the peaceful grounds one morning, Barnaby told me that Albert Einstein wandered these same tree-lined paths while mulling over his famous theories. Our new ideas might not disrupt the theory of relativity, but we hoped they would change the way people thought about luck-and the possibilities for their own futures.

It had rained hard the previous night, and the sun hadn't yet dried out the wet ground. Scooting around a puddle, I told Barnaby that writing my previous book The Gratitude Diaries had taught me that we have more control over our own happiness than we sometimes realize. I was delighted that the book had inspired so many people to lead happier lives, and I had a feeling that understanding how to make yourself lucky-under any circumstances-could have a similar effect.

Barnaby nodded. "If you're driven to make your life a little better and wonder why things don't always go your way, our new approach will let you claim the luck that should be yours."

We both agreed that luck isn't the same as random chance. If you flip a coin ten times to determine your future, you are relying on chance-and most people would agree that's pretty silly. If you talk to people, prepare yourself, look for opportunity, and then jump on the unexpected events that might (randomly) appear, you are making luck. And that's what we all need to do.

"Luck isn't a zero-sum game. There's plenty of luck for everyone if you know where and how to look for it," Barnaby said.

Barnaby thought the evidence was pretty clear that luck is not passive-it requires action, and many events that may seem like random chance are not so random after all. He was convinced that by understanding the underlying dynamics of luck, you can gain control over aspects of your life that once seemed to depend on chance, fate, or the phases of the moon. We would work together using insights and recent discoveries in psychology, behavioral economics, mathematics, and neuroscience to develop a new way of understanding luck.

"We're at the starting point of a brand-new field, and instead of finding the research, we're going to have to create it," he said.

The Luck Lab was the right place to do this, since the Institute for Advanced Study, where Barnaby has an academic appointment, is famous as a font for big ideas. Over the years, it has attracted geniuses from around the world-and it's fun to drive around local streets named after many of them.Along with Einstein, the great mathematician and philosopher Kurt Gšdel was a professor there, and so was the early computer scientist and game theory pioneer John von Neumann. Renowned theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, also known for his work building the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was a longtime director.

And Barnaby and I felt we were the right team to tackle the project. We had very different backgrounds and life experiences. I've had a successful career as a journalist, magazine editor, and TV producer in the New York City area and raised two terrific sons with my handsome doctor-husband. Barnaby grew up in Alaska and was homeschooled until he started college-at which point he launched into academic and career experiences that took him around the globe. He became a top executive at a major foundation that gives away $100 million a year. A quirky and original thinker, he knows more people than anybody I've ever met. He recently settled in New York City with his wife, Michelle, and their two very young and adorable daughters-though "settled" is never the right word for him.

We hoped our research in luck would be powerful and game-changing and give people a new view of their own lives and experiences. Barnaby had already been coming up with strategies about opportunity and risk and effort and how these affect your ability to transform your future. It was all very erudite and heady, and my job would be to bring it down to earth and see how the theories worked in everyday life.

As a practical schedule, Barnaby would escape to this ivoriest of towers every Monday and Tuesday to make conceptual models and try to develop theories of luck that worked across all contexts-whether you were trying to get a job, find a mate, or survive as a species in the evolutionary sweepstakes. On Wednesdays we would meet and talk them through. Along the way, I would find the academics, entrepreneurs, and celebrities who could illustrate the points and help us both see how people could wittingly or not make luck happen for themselves.

By the end of the year, we would know exactly what it takes to make yourself lucky. This new science of luck would have straightforward principles that would work to make things go better in all aspects of your life.

ÒBeyond the theoretical work, itÕs important to understand the right actions to take so you can put yourself on the luck-making path and create the destiny you want for yourself,Ó Barnaby said.

We were so engrossed in conversation that we hardly noticed how muddy we were getting as we slipped and slid along the (actual) path where we were walking. By the end, my canvas shoes were thoroughly soaked and caked with dirt.

"Luck may be like gratitude in that a lot depends on your perspective," I told Barnaby as we emerged from the woods. "I consider this a very lucky walk in that we have exciting ideas and a good plan. But someone else might see it as unlucky that I have to throw away my shoes."

He smiled. "Sacrifices are always made in the name of science."

I looked down at my muddy feet. Part of luck was about finding new opportunities. Compared to that, finding new shoes shouldn't be very hard.

A couple of days after we got back from Princeton, Barnaby suggested I take a first shot at seeing how our basic theory worked in practice. If we were right that you make your own luck, could I try to get lucky on one particular day?

For this experiment I didn't need a blackboard full of equations. I would simply try to create my own luck.

My day didn't look to be very exciting. I planned to do a few errands in the morning, then go to Penn Station and catch a train to visit my wonderful mother-in-law.

"Does any part of that sound lucky to you?" I asked Barnaby.

It also happened to be Friday, May 13th-not the obvious day to have beautiful opportunities fall from the sky.

But Barnaby asked me to set out on my day with a slightly different perspective than usual. He gave me some basic guidelines for luck: I should stay attentive to opportunities, be prepared for anything, and try the unexpected.

"And luck will just rain down on me?" I asked dubiously.

Since it was already storming outside, it would have been better for some sunshine to appear. But a challenge is a challenge, and I was intrigued.

My day started unremarkably with visits to the post office and drugstore, and then I...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Dutton
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1101986395
• ISBN 13: 9781101986394
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Dutton; https://www.penguin.com/dutton-childrens-overview/; ; Im Mittelfeld 25; K?ln; Deutschland; 51105; Deutschland