The 4 Types of Luck

Not all luck is created equal. There are really four different types.

October 03, 2023

The aspiring coach is hustling.

He’s on LinkedIn and social media, constantly sending coaches messages, going to clinics and working camps — before he finally lands an unpaid offer from a school.

After two months, an assistant coach abruptly leaves, and the coach who started off as unpaid is bumped up to video coordinator.

“You’re so lucky,” a friend tells him. “Those jobs are impossible to find.”

The good fortune wasn’t pure happenstance, though. It was an example of “luck from motion,” one of the four different types of luck, according to neurologist and author Dr. James Austin:

1. Blind Luck

•What’s completely out of our control
•What’s 100 percent random
•“Acts of God”

Example: Finding a $20 bill on the street.

2. Luck From Motion

•Efforts and energy leading to positive breaks
•Talent and social skills cultivating opportunity
•General hustle triggering good fortune

Example: Starting off unpaid, proving ourselves, and a full-time position surprisingly becoming available.

3. Luck From Awareness

•Identifying opportunities for increased efficiency
•Recognizing when a situation could be long-term beneficial
•Being hyper-tuned to trends/patterns and seizing the moment

Example: Finding a contact for someone who isn’t listed online and getting a response and subsequent job offer.

4. Luck From Uniqueness

•Having a rare skillset or expertise in a very particular area
•Quirky or eccentric tastes that make us extremely uncommon
•Unconventional preferences or interests

Example: Studying the Urdu language and finding out a major prospective client speaks it as well.

(Entrepreneur and investor Sahil Bloom recently shared Dr. Austin’s theories).

The point is that not all luck is created equal — and good fortune is rarely pure happenstance.

We can better position ourselves to catch breaks by being proactive, honing rare skillsets and spotting hidden growth opportunities long before others.

Doing so can be the difference between elevating our teams and careers or lamenting why we just can’t catch a break.