We are obsessed with success.
We hunt for the one tool, the “smart” gadget, the life-altering experience that will finally make us happy, successful, and whole. We devour the biographies of the rich and famous, hoping to find a repeatable formula, a guaranteed map to the treasure.
But in our search for a formula, we often ignore the most powerful and unpredictable ingredient of all: Luck.
Deconstructing the “I Built That” Myth
As a species, we have a funny relationship with chance.
We understand the “genetic lottery,” we talk about a “lucky break,” but we hate the idea that our lives aren’t entirely according to plan.
This is why the modern success story is always one of pure will: “I failed often, but I never gave up. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. I built this.” And the implicit message is, “So can you.”
This narrative is powerful, but it’s skewed by powerful cognitive biases.
- The Correspondence Bias: When we succeed, it’s because of our hard work and stellar character. When others succeed, we’re quick to point out how much luck they had. The reverse is also true: our own failings are due to circumstance; others’ are due to character flaws.
- Survivorship Bias: We study the winners. We learn from the Steve Jobs who returned to Apple and launched the iPhone, or The Beatles who got their lucky breaks. We completely ignore the countless other entrepreneurs and bands who worked just as hard, had just as much talent, but faded into obscurity. Their stories are invisible, so we wrongly assume that hard work always leads to victory.
Your Starting Point on the Map
Let’s be clear: chance plays a massive, undeniable role.
Your “lottery ticket” at birth—your gender, the city you were born in (Boston, Bern, Bamako, or Beijing), the languages you grew up with—fundamentally shapes your starting position on the world map.
Talent without opportunity is like a compass without a needle. Skill without a market that values it is a tool that could just as well stay in the box.
Seeing this can feel overwhelming. We’re bombarded by stories of extremes—rags to riches, riches to ruin—and the noise makes it seem impossible to draw any real conclusions. It can make you feel powerless to do anything but wait for luck.
But what if that’s the wrong way to look at it? What if acknowledging luck is the most empowering first step you can take?
Creating Luck: The Explorer’s Way
Here is the one piece of advice that cuts through the noise: You have to buy the ticket.
You cannot wait for success to find you. You cannot “manifest” good fortune from your sofa. To win any lottery, you must first participate. To create the conditions for luck to strike in your life, you have to get out into the world and do things.
This is the very soul of microexploration. It’s not about waiting for a single, lucky break, your big discovery that will change everything.
It’s about actively increasing your “surface area” for luck to find you.
- Instead of waiting for an opportunity, you explore new skills. Each skill is a new tool in your explorer’s toolkit, preparing you for unexpected challenges and chances.
- Instead of waiting for your passion, you explore new hobbies and projects. Each attempt is a new path you chart on your map, leading you to territories you never knew existed.
- Instead of waiting for the right connection, you explore your community. Each conversation is a chance to meet a fellow explorer who might know of a hidden trail.
This is how you “live your luck.” You act. You learn. You build. You move. By doing so, you are constantly collecting new lottery tickets—new possibilities for a fortunate encounter, a brilliant idea, a life-changing opportunity.
The most wonderful thing happens when you adopt this mindset. You stop focusing on the single, grand prize of “success,” and you start finding joy in the journey itself. You realize that in the very act of exploring, learning, and striving, you are already profoundly lucky. You are alive, you are capable, and the map of your life is still waiting to be drawn.