Today I’m going to tell you how to get lucky.
It seems like some people are always in the right place at the right time getting all the lucky breaks, while the rest of us watch from the sidelines. I often feel like I’m in that sideline category too. But as used machinery dealers, our business is fueled by luck, or as I like to call it, serendipity. So I’ve spent years figuring out how to make luck happen more often.
Back in 2021, I was feeling sort of stuck. It wouldn’t be accurate to say I felt down on my luck, but it didn’t feel like I was getting the lucky break I needed either. Then one morning on my drive to work, I heard Christian Busch on The Next Big Idea podcast talking about his book The Serendipity Mindset.
Here was a UCLA business professor explaining that luck isn’t random. It’s something you can actively create. Busch says serendipity is about seeing something in the unexpected and then doing something with it, turning it into positive outcomes.
I was fascinated, but I was also excited that maybe this was the answer to being luckier, to getting more luck. I sent him an email asking if he would come on Swarfcast. He said yes. That conversation became one of my favorite episodes. But I didn’t realize at the time that the email itself was what Busch calls a “serendipity bomb.”
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Check out the video I made breaking down the whole story on my YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast.
Serendipity Bombs
A serendipity bomb means casting a wide net instead of obsessing over one prospect. When I have an INDEX MS22-8 or a Doosan twin-spindle to sell, we try to contact lots of people who might be interested, even long shots. Most won’t respond, but we only need one buyer. Some people call this playing a numbers game, but lucky people do this all the time. It’s like throwing a Hail Mary. You only get the catch because you put the ball in the air.
Serendipity and Creativity
It was only a matter of time before I made an I Learned It on a Podcast episode about the podcast that introduced me to serendipity. For those new here, I Learned It on a Podcast is my YouTube show where I break down the best insights I find while listening to way too many podcasts. This concept has shaped how I approach business, relationships, and creative projects. So here’s the season finale, honestly, the episode I’ve been building toward since I started this show.
In his book, Busch quotes Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” That’s the key to creative serendipity: being prepared to see potential in accidents and unexpected combinations. This whole show exists because dots connected over time.
Last August, feeling stale, my life coach Ginny suggested I get on YouTube. The I Learned It on a Podcast idea had been rattling around for years. I couldn’t find a co-host, so I made the first video on my own. Then I discovered AI could help write scripts, and my editor became a creative partner. All these separate elements connected into something I couldn’t have imagined a year ago.
Six weeks ago, shooting late and struggling with camera framing, I stumbled upon a video about creators making short, unpolished videos several days a week. I thought to myself, “I could make short raw videos about serendipity, and hopefully it wouldn’t take all my free time.”
So that night I shot the first serendipity video.
In the end, I’ve realized the biggest luck was discovering Busch’s book in the first place and realizing that not only could I become a good practitioner of serendipity, I liked telling others about it too.
Next time you listen to a podcast or read something or have a conversation where you learn something that could be important, be mindful. Think about it at the end of the day and write it down. Ask yourself: could this thing I learned today change my life, at least a little? If you believe it could, take action. Try using what you learned.
Will there be another season of I Learned It on a Podcast? I hope so down the line. We’ll see where the dots lead me. But for now, I’m launching a new series soon. I think I’m going to call it Serendipity Diary. That’s just what my nudge is telling me.
Question: What was a lucky moment that had a significant effect on your life?
