Think of luck as a surface area, and opportunities as small balls falling from the sky. The bigger your surface area, the more balls you catch.
You can’t catch opportunities with a small surface area. So, naturally one would question: “how can I expand this surface area (luck)?
Luck = Doing × Telling2
The formula essentially captures a powerful insight about creating opportunities: while taking action (“Doing”) is important, the act of sharing and communicating your work (“Telling”) has an exponential impact on creating luck.
Doing
I started creating PowerPoint tutorials in 4th grade and uploading on YouTube. This had positive effects:
- I was actively learning how to create and distribute content: scripting, recording, editing, designing, marketing
- I learnt to build a website where viewers could download my templates: website development, email marketing
Telling²
The YouTube videos indirectly told the world, “Hey! I’m really good at PowerPoint, I can do so many things here!” In 8th grade, I decided to share my email in the description of the videos. I started getting emails (freelancing projects). My videos were enough proof for my competency.
I then wrote blogs (allowing others to find me through Google). This allowed me to build a distribution network (building an audience that I monetised later: earning enough to fund my IPM fees).
Most importantly, by constantly communicating, I was able to demonstrate authority over this domain. My work spoke for itself when WHO reached out to build educational softwares (on PowerPoint).
The squared element (²) represents how sharing compounds over time: Each piece of content creates multiple touch points. My work becomes discoverable through various channels. Past work continues generating opportunities (like WHO finding your templates). One connection leads to multiple opportunities (template customization → education modules → gamification projects)
To summarise:
- Doing without telling limits your opportunities to your immediate network
- Telling without doing lacks substance and credibility
- But doing + telling² creates a compounding effect where your work can reach and resonate with opportunities far beyond your direct network
A bias towards action
Mr. Deepinder Goyal started by just scanning restaurant menus. Posted them online. That’s how Zomato began. His first website was basic. But he kept improving. Now Zomato delivers billions of orders.
If he could start with something that that can be done in ~24 hours… what is stopping you from taking your first step and breaking your inertia? Progress beats perfection, anyday, everyday.
Your college placement is not your final salary, your first version of your startup isn’t the final business model. Why are you afraid? To quote Nike, “Just. Do. It.”
Be brave enough to suck at something new
I have a proposition: your 15th PowerPoint presentation will be top-notch. To reach your 15th presentation, you would have to go through 14 sub-par presentations.
Would you take up on this offer and work hard to create 14 presentations?
I put a poll and 96% (n=148) said yes.
What is stopping you? The fear of being judged? You need to be brave enough to suck at something new. Remember that the cost of inaction is more than the cost of failure.
Pick one skill → Be okay with being bad → Document your journey (improvements) → Share your progress → Repeat
Remember: Your 15th try will be amazing. But you need to get through the first 14. And tell people about all 15.
Look at Mr. Alakh Pandey (Physics Wallah). Started teaching in a small room. Recorded videos on basic phone. Shared freely on YouTube. Now runs a $1.1 billion edtech company. I’m pretty sure with the resources that you have, your production quality would be better than his first video. The only difference: Mr. Alakh Pandey didn’t quit, he stayed consistent. Will you?
Work, don’t network
I have a pet peeve: students chasing a network without having something valuable to give in return. What is the point of your internship cold-email when you haven’t built your hard-skills/portfolio? Why are you aimlessly shooting your shot?
Be the best at (say) PowerBI, build 2-3 personal projects, write blogs on Medium (or even in your college website), collaborate with your peers to publish an abstract or two in academic conferences, win a competition involving data analytics… and then shoot your shot.
At the end of the day: work more than you network, fail more times than you succeed, but start building something. Take ownership, take the initiative, have limitless ambition with energy that cannot be diminished. At the same time, be content but not complacent.
