My new book, Life is Luck: Lessons From a Paperboy and How to Improve Your Luck, is out now.
This book shares the lessons I’ve learned along my journey and my advice on how to improve your own luck. Business culture is obsessed with the idea that success is purely the result of 4 AM wake-up calls and sheer grit. It's nonsense. Life is luck, and success comes down to acknowledging the hand you were dealt and squeezing every drop of opportunity out of the breaks you get.

Here is an excerpt from Life is Luck: Lessons From a Paperboy and How to Improve Your Luck:

I was a young lawyer starting out, I used to spend every Friday asking for new business. I would schedule a lunch in a town with someone I already knew. But from nine o’clock until lunch, I would canvass local law firms, walk in the door, and ask to meet the main person. Once I was in their office, I would engage in small talk and then ask them the big question: “Who do you send your personal-injury work to?” Many times, these lawyers were taken aback. I don’t know if anyone else ever came in off the street and asked that question, but I did.

Before going to law school, when I sold Yellow Pages, I developed lots of skills that were helpful in this endeavor. Basically, I learned how to cold-call strangers. It was hard, but I didn’t mind because I knew the payoff could be great. When other people, and even my family, would hear what I was doing, their mouths fell open. The thought of cold-calling another lawyer and asking for business seemed foreign to them. To me, it seemed a natural fit. I did this for many years. It was very effective, and I developed a tremendous referral network from my Friday meet-and-greets. To this day, those lawyers still refer cases to my firm.

Those cold calls were not as easy as I make them seem. Many times, I had to steel myself for the reactions that would come my way. Lots of times, I had a pit in my stomach before walking in. But I knew something: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. This simple exercise on Fridays was one way I went looking for luck. Had I stayed in my office working by myself, these referrals and relationships would never have become a reality. If you’re not willing to look for luck, you will never find it.