Luck Surface Area: Creating Your Own Luck

Hi everyone. My name is Utkarsh and I'm the CEO of Network Capital. Today I'm going to tell you about a really interesting concept called luck surface area. Essentially, luck surface area says that you can create your own luck. You don't need to be subject to the whims and fancies of what befalls you. But if you do great things and tell lots of people, you will create opportunities for yourself, some of which will pan out, and you will be able to get to the kind of goals and direction that you want to give to your life. In my own professional and personal experience, I love to conduct what you call low risk micro experiments. Only through the process of tinkering and taking the shots, you know that at least a few of them will pan out. In order to augment your luck surface area, you need to be cautious of both elements of the equation. Doing great things and telling lots of people. Now, doing great things doesn't mean being great at everything. Nobody's great at everything. You need to identify what you want to focus on. And once you identify, what's your superpower, what energizes you, you want to become better and better and better every day. I love compounding for this particular reason. Your goal is not to become like a Superman in, in 20 days, but to just get 1% better. If you keep doing this over a period of a year, you will notice that whatever skill that you've chosen, whether it's writing, public speaking, critical thinking, coding, what have you, you will be able to find your niche, build your category of one. Telling lots of people is also very important because essentially, how does luck happen? Luck happens when people context, platforms, communities, get you new kinds of opportunities. And these opportunities, please don't come sitting under a tree and hiding behind the bushes. You need to be out there, but not in a way which is aggressive or you don't need to network like crazy. You need to let your work talk to you, media code anything that you create. That's the best way to use and share your insights with lots of people. It's a win, win for everybody. It makes the listeners, the people who are engaging with your work, smarter. And it gives you something meaningful to connect with only by, you know, following both sides of the equation of doing great things, telling lots of people. You will be able to augment your luck surface area and create your own luck. I do understand that, you know, at a time like this, many of us are suffering personally, professionally, and in a lot of ways this pandemic has been a true tragedy. But I do have to emphasize that especially when we are down and out, especially when we feel the need to hide and, you know, be with ourselves, those are the times where we really need to lean into our community and, you know, ask for help. So use the Network Capital community as frequently as you want. The more specific you are, the better it will be. And you'll notice that if you ask for specific help and try and add specific value to others, you will take a micro step towards building your luck. Surface area. I now have the vocabulary and the language to put it, but if I observe people from my high school or college or business school or other kinds of fellowships that I've done, the people who excel are often the ones who've who've done both of these things. Interestingly, a point of caution here is telling lots of people doesn't necessarily give extroverts an advantage. So if you're an introvert, that's awesome. You can still use your creativity, your product, your whatever you've created as a means to share. And if you're next, sure, go to lots of gatherings and communities and as and when the world opens up in person meetups. But you'll notice that typically combining both of these things makes sense. So let me know what your adventures with building your luxurface area is. I'm always very interested. You'll notice that in a few days from now when the Summer School kickstarts. We're also launching a publication with all mental models relevant for young professionals and students and I think you will all enjoy it. I believe the launch is on the 27th. Feel free to join in. In the summer school, the kids joining in will actually discuss and deliberate a lot of these things. In our side Hustle Fellowship, we've picked out a bunch of mental models relevant for them. And yeah, I hope that this week brings about adventures, surprises and loads of luck that you create your way. Thank you very much. And keep doing what you do to make Network Capital the community that is today. Take care.