How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life – Available from Amazon.com

Janice Kaplan and Barnaby Marsh wrote an article about their new book, How Luck Happens, which recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal. According to the article, two of the key traits of successful people are persistence and optimism—to keep trying again and again, knowing that sooner or later one of those tries is going to succeed.

As Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert” put it, “To succeed, first you must do something. And if that doesn’t work, which can be 90% of the time, do something else. Luck finds the doers.”  The lesson here is that if you just wait around for luck to happen, it probably won’t.  On the other hand, if you keep trying, one day luck will tap you on the shoulder. If you would like to read Kaplan and Marsh’s article in its entirety, here’s the link. (Archived URL Version) (Original URL)