The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles
by Richard Wiseman
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be lucky at every turn and others simply can’t seem to get a break? Is luck just fate, a psychic gift or a question of intelligence? Are people born lucky? Can you change your luck? And what is it that lucky people have that unlucky people lack?
Most of us have asked at least one of these questions at some point in our lives. In this book, psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist with his own research unit at the University of Hertforshire, U.K., sheds a great deal of light on this very interesting subject.
Dr. Wiseman conducted a groundbreaking new scientific eight-year study of the phenomenon of luck and the various ways we can bring good luck into our lives. He shares his findings from intensive interviews and experiments with more than 400 volunteers, his long-term study of both lucky and unlucky people as well as the work of others. He is more than likely the first to place luck under a scientific microscope, examining the different ways in which lucky and unlucky people think and behave. As a result of his intensive focus on this unique subject, Wiseman arrived at an astonishing conclusion: Luck is something that can be learned. It is available to anyone willing to pay attention to four essential principles:
- Creating chance opportunities
- Thinking lucky
- Feeling lucky
- Denying fate
Dr. Wiseman examines each of the four principles as well as 12 sub principles that promises to offer “a scientifically proven way to understand, control, and increase your luck.” This easy read is filled with real-life stories from hundreds of interviews; inspirational quotes from the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Oprah Winfrey; graphed research data and anecdotes from the lives of the famous such as Harry Truman and Warren Buffett. The Luck Factor also richly portrays the lives of ordinary people who have been extraordinarily lucky or unlucky.
Readers can determine their capacity for luck as well as learn to change their luck through helpful exercises that appear throughout the book. Finally, Dr. Wiseman gives us a look into “The Luck School” where he instructs unlucky people and also teaches lucky people how to further enhance their luck. Questionnaires and exercises offer guidance on how to acquire or enhance luckiness while keeping a “luck journal” and incorporating techniques to increase intuition, stop negative self-fulfilling prophecies and learn how to effectively network. In addition to the usual tests and exercises common to self-help books, he includes visual games to make his points.
The Luck Factor will give you revolutionary insight into the lucky mind and could, quite simply, change your life.
(This book review was originally published in 2005 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 13.)
About Harry K. Jones
Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.