In 5 years of studying rich people, I learned they make their own luck — here's how you can make yours

Dan Kitwood / Staff / Getty Images

Each one of the 233 millionaires in my five-year study of rich and poor people was lucky.

Fifty-six (24%) were born into it and 177 (76%) created it. The type of luck those 24% received was random good luck. The type of luck those 76% received was self-made. Luck, whether random or self-made, is a common denominator of all wealthy people.

If you want to be rich, you need luck.

While you have no control over the circumstances you are born into, you do have control over the circumstances you manufacture after birth. Depending on the study or survey, about 67%-80% of all millionaires are self-made. They start out either poor or middle class.

That’s a good thing. Success, when you think about it, really boils down to a game of hide and seek. Luck does the hiding — you have to do the seeking. But you must look for luck in the right places.

So where exactly do you look for luck? Fortunately, success leaves clues.

Luck hides outside your comfort zones.

Successful people are very much like scientists. They love to experiment. But in the case of self-made millionaires, they experiment with new things, new ideas, and new people. Finding luck requires that you step outside your comfort zones. It requires an open mind; one which is curious and receptive to possibilities. When you expand your comfort zone you also expand the opportunity for luck to occur.

Luck hides inside positivity.

Opportunities have to be seen in order to be embraced. Positivity opens the mind to opportunities. Positivity means having a positive mental outlook. It is the springboard of all creativity and insight.

Problem solving requires creativity and insight, and self-made millionaire are, by default, problem-solvers. Their optimistic outlook enables them to see possibilities for solutions. Positivity also creates a higher level of confidence and an expectation that good things will happen. Positivity is the fertilizer in which good luck grows.

Dan Kitwood / Staff / Getty Images

Luck hides behind courage.

Creating luck requires that you take risks. Taking risk requires courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the pursuit of something while in the throes of it. Overcoming fear is something you must cultivate as a habit.

Luck hides inside new relationships.

Meeting the right person at the right time, requires that you ... meet people. People do not just drop in your lap and, voilà, luck happens. You have to go out and find them.

You find them by joining networking groups, by volunteering at non-profits, by taking seminars, at fund-raisers, when you take up tennis, or golf. You find the right person at the right time by doing new and novel things.

Luck hides inside intuition.

Intuition is the means by which the subconscious communicates with the conscious. Your subconscious knows all and sees all. It is constantly taking in sensory data and information that is below the radar of the conscious mind. As a result, it knows things the conscious mind does not. It exists to not only help you survive but also to thrive. You need to listen to your gut. Those who do find luck.

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