Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career

by John D. Krumboltz and Al S. Levin

Book Overview

Unplanned events - chance occurrences - more often determine life and career choices than all the careful planning we do. A chance meeting, a broken appointment, a spontaneous vacation trip, a fill-in job, a hobby - these are the kinds of experiences that lead to unexpected life directions and career choices. Luck Is No Accident is the first career planning book that actively encourages readers to prepare for the unexpected, to take advantage of chance...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1886230536
• ISBN13: 9781886230538
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Impact Publishers
• Length: 177 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Valuable Tool for Any Stage of Life

Whether you're 21,51,or 81, it's never too late to create a satisfying life for yourself" and this book tells you how in a quick and easy read. The book encourages you to follow your dreams, not to feel stuck in your present situation, to be open to changes and to watch for circumstances and happenstances that are life-changing opportunities. Don't take the attitude of having to decide what you'll do the rest of your life...you'll change and so will your opportunities. Watch for them and mine them. Day dream and learn from yourself what you want to do and where you want to go in life. Don't allow yourself to remain in situations, jobs, or relationships that you don't enjoy. "Put yourself in charge of creating a satisfying life." If you can't say " I love going to work," this book gives you many, many guides to changing that. The author offers numerous ways to make contacts, to try new ideas and situations and people, and to get excited about your life again...by first removing your fear of failure and by recognizing that no one's life goes "according to plan" because circumstances always change and unexpected events occur. Learn to view these as opportunities and they will lead you to a better life than you could have planned, if you learn to stop sabotaging yourself by your expectations or those of others. In the book you will learn how to overcome obstacles and to know that "failure is a normal part of life and learning." The book is a valuable tool for people at any stage of life, and especially for students about to graduate and look for a job in this dismal job market. A perfect gift book.

You can learn to get lucky!

Those of us familiar with the theory and stories of happenstance have been awaiting this book a long time. Thank you, authors, for making your theory available to anyone in need of inspiration. Thanks, also, for validation of those magic moments that have opened doors for us all at one time or another. We career counselors encourage our clients and students to minimize the quest for the perfect resume format or interview outfit. They should rather maximize encounters and opportunities. When our coaching about the need to network is met with a glazed look, let's try recommending this book instead. It makes the point that failures, mistakes, rejections, and random encounters can be the seeds of a meaningful career direction. So go forth - speak to your neighbor, thank a former teacher, chat with the person behind you in the grocery line. To Krumboltz and Levin, it's not just whom you know, but what you do about it that will create your luck.

Luck is ironic--or not?

I just finished reading Luck is no Accident today. It's a remarkable book that I couldn't put down. Believe it or not, this book came into my life just at the right time. Let me explain myself... I'm a senior at the University of Southern California. As you can imagine, I'm currently trying to figure out my entire life in the next 10 months. That's supposedly when I'm going to enter the "real world." Everyone has a different opinion on which way I should go except for me. I have no clue what my calling is quite yet. But this book taught me that it's alright to not be completely sure of your life plan at 21. I think what I like best about Luck is No Accident is it's incredible way of helping you unlearn all the "junk" that people have told you your whole life. We learn that we have to be just like all the other sheep in this world--following some predesigned plan that will guarantee success. However, this isn't true and most people still think that it is! This book demonstrates through numerous accounts that the best experiences in life are the unplanned ones--something so true. I encourage all people--no matter what stage of life you are in--to read this book. And I especially hope that college students read it! Who knows, maybe one of your professors will assign you this book(like mine). Trust me, it won't be by accident :)

An absolute inspiration!

I loved this book! After 2 chapters I was already looking at life differently. For me, it's not that I wanted to change my career necessarily but it gave me a new perspective about my job. For example, there's this boring meeting I have to go for my job with various people in the field. What an opportunity! (and it used to be "What a drag!") Who knows how this book will eventually change my life but it has already affected my every day attitude.

Off-Roading Your Way to Success

This is a book about attaining success through being human, in the freest sense of the word, embracing uncertainties, changes, and mistakes as opportunities. It's about redefining success as a lifelong work in progress rather than a set goal. If you can begin to see your future as Krumboltz and Levin advise, staying open-minded and letting chance occurrences, or happenstances guide you, the potential for learning experiences that improve the direction your life takes becomes a wide-open horizon. You don't have to decide on the "perfect" job, career, mate, or lifestyle; commit yourself to a long-range plan at an early age; or wallow in misery when the choices you make fail to satisfy. You can and should, the authors insist, go another way -- responding to your life experience, your changing interests and needs, and your ability to react constructively to unexpected circumstances.This is the book's core concept: You can't control the outcomes of unpredictable situations, but you can take charge of your own thoughts and actions to increase the probability that good will come of them. The essence of creating your own luck is seeing detours as potentially better paths even if they initially involve disappointment.Making the most of these factors involves a willingness to risk mistakes and rejection, but the authors emphasize that you don't have to take bold leaps when venturing in new directions. Small steps are realistic and effective: Get involved in a new hobby, sport, or interest group. Research areas of interest. Network. Ask for what you want. Keep learning. Shifting your life just a notch can have a ripple effect and a big payoff eventually. It's tough to stay timid about trying out these ideas when they're backed by inarguably good sense, creative thinking, and inspiring scenarios to boot. The workbook angle of this uplifting book offers thought-provoking questions and exercises to help you examine your aspirations and try out strategies for achieving them. Each success becomes a kind of plateau shaped to suit you right now; staying flexible lets you move on with faith in your own resourcefulness. This is refreshingly modern career advice that lends itself to all other aspects of your life. The only way you can fail to be motivated is if you opt to do nothing.