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Barnett Helzberg Jr. is a lucky man. He had built a chain of jewellery stores with an annual revenue of ~$300mn. One day he was walking in New York when he heard a woman call out, “Mr.Buffett” to the man next to him. He wondered if the man was the legendary investor. Helzberg had turned 60 & was thinking of selling his company. So he walked over to the stranger & introduced himself. The man was indeed the famous investor & the chance meeting proved fruitful. A year later, the famous investor agreed to buy his stores. Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the break they deserve? A professor of psychiatry- Richard Wiseman says he has discovered the answer.

He says, “I set out to examine luck & wanted to know why some people are in the right place at the right time, while others experience ill fortune. I advertised in newspapers for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky. Hundreds of men & women volunteered for my research from all walks of life. I interviewed them, monitored their lives & made them take part in experiments. My 10-year study into the nature of luck revealed that, to a large extent, people make their own good & bad fortune. I identified 4 principles used by lucky people to create good fortune in their lives.”

Principle 1: Maximise Chance Opportunities -Lucky people are skilled at noticing & acting upon chance opportunities. They do this via networking, adopting a relaxed attitude & being open to new experiences.

Principle 2: Listening to Lucky Hunches -Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition & gut feelings. They also take steps to actively boost their intuitive abilities by meditating & clearing their mind of other thoughts.

Principle 3: Expect Good Fortune- Lucky people are certain that the future is going to be full of good fortune. These expectations help lucky people persist in the face of failure & shape their interactions with others in a positive way.

Principle 4: Turn Bad Luck to Good- Lucky people are resilient to challenging situations. They imagine how things could have been worse & take control of the situation by continuing to stay positive.

While investing too, it is an investor’s behaviour that is largely responsible for successful wealth creation than the amount invested. Smaller amounts invested consistently over longer periods of time have the power to create more wealth than larger amounts invested over shorter periods.

In the chart, Seeta starts a monthly SIP of Rs.5000 from age 25 & reaches a corpus of Rs.1.76 crore by age 55. Geeta who starts 20 years later at age 45, invests 3 times the amount (Rs.15,000) to reach only Rs.35 lakhs by age 55. Both invested the same principal amount of Rs.18 lakh but the final amount varied. It is strange that Seeta will be considered lucky while Geeta will be considered unlucky, though it is more to do with Seeta’s behaviour of being consistent, resilient (during challenging market situations) & focusing on longevity rather than mere luck. Thus, luck is not a magical ability or the result of random chance. Nor are people born lucky or unlucky. Instead, their behaviour is responsible for much of their fortune.