#134
November 7, 2022
Who luck. Jim Collins.
I was listening to a podcast in which Tim Ferriss interviews Jim Collins. Jim Collins is a business thought leader, Stanford Professor, and well-known for publishing books like Good To Great, Built to Last, Great by Choice, etc.
They covered quite a few interesting topics, but the one I wanted to highlight is the idea of "who luck". This is the luck of having your life intersect with the right person at the right time. Often times, there is a person or two that have a BIG positive impact on your life. People that, had you not met, your life would have likely taken a drastically different (and possibly worse) path.
This gets back to what has been a central theme to my Audience of Four writings, and that is the importance of surrounding yourself with good people.
How can you increase the odds of this “who luck” happening to you? One big way to increase the odds of positive serendipity is to be in the right places.
If you want to work in finance, you should probably live in NY or London. If you want to work in tech, the Bay Area is your best choice. Oil & Gas? Texas is probably your best bet.
If you want to meet a high quality prospective spouse, the odds are better at a church function than a bar at 2am.
What about schools? I don’t think highly competitive schools offer that much different education. They use the same books as other schools and the teachers are usually grad students. The difference is you are in class with other smart, ambitious people. This doesn’t guarantee they will be good people or have a positive impact on your life, but your odds improve.
“You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Choose wisely.”