You make your own luck!

Some people are successful in matters of love, in their careers, in their finances etc. Yet these people don't seem to work particularly hard. Others repeatedly fail despite their efforts and talents.

Why do some people are lucky and others never get the breaks they deserve? Why do some people are always in the right place and at the right time, while others consistently experience bad fortune? 

Darren Brown in his show 'The Experiments' asked what makes some people lucky and others attract only misfortune. He got a rumour about the lucky powers of a town's statute to see if it changes the lives of local residents. Many psychologists did similar tests and what they discovered was that people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviours are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. 

Darren Brown showed that lucky people consistently encounter opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not, due to the differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. Psychologists showed that unlucky people are more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the opportunity. They miss it because they are too focused on something else. 'The Experiments' established a well known quote by American writer Tennessee Williams who said: 'Luck is believing you're lucky'. Darren set a rumour about lucky dog statue in town and people believed it was lucky which made it easier for them to spot the opportunities.

These experiments revealed that lucky people generate good fortune because they are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, they make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, they have positive expectations and adopt an attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

At the end of Darren's experiment unlucky people became lucky and lucky people became even luckier.

Professor Wiseman in his book called 'The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind' concluded that the essence of luck is opportunity. In his experiments, he found that lucky people smile twice as often as others, and engage in more eye contact than unlucky people do. Such a behaviour exposes a person to more opportunities due to the increased social interaction. In fact, open-mindedness allows one to encounter a greater number of unique prospects, and makes one to embrace new opportunities. Moreover, Wiseman's study showed that optimistic person is more satisfied with all areas of their lives than an unlucky, pessimistic person.

Luck plays a huge part in every career. If you believe that things are outside your control and that your actions will not make a difference, you make less effort. If you make less effort, you will be less successful and this will just confirm your belief that you can't change anything. This is known as learned helplessness

'Unlucky people' tend to look through newspapers determined to find certain types of advertisements and miss other types of jobs. In the times of recession it is more important to look for benefits rather than salaries. Lucky people build and maintain diverse networks and regularly expose themselves to new experiences and environments. In result, more opportunities come their way. They expect their good luck to continue into the future and they take more calculated risks. They persevere in the face of failure, not giving up at the first obstacle. Lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune by learning from their experiences and mistakes.

Kat Ciszak

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Outsource Ten have been drafted as a customer awareness team for them to provide a more directly channelled brand awareness campaign as an added value channel to our client's  existing mass media strategy. 

"Dirty, Sexy Things" - Building Your Brand

Last night on Channel 4 featured a series called 'Dirty, sexy things'. It showed how hard and difficult it is to build your brand as a SUCCESSFUL model. Millions of young, bright, attractive people who want to get into modelling, only a small percentage find any success at it. It is simply because they don't possess all of the key elements of a successful model.

Many young and beautiful models fail to reach their potential because they don't have enough drive and desire to overcome the inevitable setbacks they encounter. - They simply quit.

Modeling is a BUSINESS. 

Every business costs money, every business takes time and every business involves education and experience to make it successful. Their time is money. Therefore, in business you cannot waste anyone's time by not being punctual or ready to work at the scheduled start time. There are millions of pretty faces, just like there are millions of businesses. You can create a demand for your services if you offer a unique attitude and strategy. All good people create networks of clients that are constantly growing. You need to find ways to reach potential clients and generate more work and more clients from networking techniques.

Successful Models are MADE and not BORN. They work at all aspects of what they do and they don't stop because of few setbacks. The same relates to business. A successful entrepreneur is determined to accomplish a goal and they are not easily stopped by excuses or fears of the unknown. Being an entrepreneur is a test of your faith. If you want to be successful you need to believe in yourself. You cannot fear the failure. Work ethic and driving ambition will help you to overcome the many hurdles you will experience. There is a need for a passion to succeed. If you don't have the excitement for your product/service, people will pick up on that and you will not last.

Successful models have a directions and a plan of action. They set their portfolio, their resume, their network of potential clients and the part of the market they want to work in, and they plan a way to achieve those goals. Successful people 'think' success at all times. In business, creating a brand takes time. You need to be relentless in building your brand image and presence in the market. That means your have to be persistent in communicating your brand at every opportunity.

Starting and running a successful business can be rewarding and challenging. Success requires focus, discipline and perseverance. However, success will not come over night – it requires a long term focus and that you remain consistent in challenging environments.

'Sweat and sacrifice equal success'. Those models I saw last night on the 'Dirty, sexy things' programme, go for 20 castings everyday for 6 days a week. At the end they will maybe get 1 or 2 jobs. They start their day at 7 or even earlier in the morning and finish late at night. Moreover they spend fortune on transport in London and other fashion cities in Europe. Crazy right? However, most people are not successful because they are not willing to sacrifice their movie time, their sleeping time, and their time for games and so on and so forth. Success is not something what will come to you automatically nor will it fall from the sky. The advantage of having your own business is that you are building something for you and not for someone else.

Written by Kat Ciszak (Business Development Advisor- Outsource Ten)