Luck is not a roll of the dice. It is capital that you can develop.
When it comes to changing careers, many people say, ‘I haven’t been lucky,’ as if the future were decided by chance. But the work of British psychologist Richard Wiseman has proven the opposite. After ten years of research on people who described themselves as ‘lucky’, he shows that luck is not a matter of chance: it is a behavioural skill, a mental attitude, an ability to create opportunities.
According to Wiseman, lucky people don’t succeed because they wait. They create favourable circumstances by exposing themselves more, talking more about what they love, following their curiosity, and welcoming unexpected twists and turns.
And that is exactly what working on your appetites allows you to do. What you enjoy doing becomes a concrete lever for activating the mechanisms of luck. Because appetences makes you more attentive, more open, and more readable to others. Working on your appetites means actively increasing your luck capital. This is not positive psychology. It is a strategic choice.
Ce que dit Richard Wiseman sur les gens “chanceux”
What Richard Wiseman says about “lucky” people
- They are open to the unexpected: they step outside their routine, try things without guarantees, expose themselves without total control.
- They cultivate contacts: they talk about what they like, ask questions, and share their curiosity.
- They follow their intuition: they listen to what attracts them, even when it is not yet rationally clear.
- They know how to turn failures into turning points: they reinterpret obstacles as changes of direction.
Wiseman goes further: he suggests developing your ‘surface area for encountering luck’ by broadening your exposure to new situations, paying attention to small signals, and daring to express your desires, even if they are vague.
These behaviours are difficult to force. But they become natural when you connect with your appetites. Because what you love to do makes you more attentive, more daring, more visible. This is how appetite acts as a multiplier of luck.
Appetences creates the conditions for luck.
Your appetences are the activities you enjoy doing over the long term, without any effort of will. When you reconnect with them, you become more:
- Visible (because you dare to talk about it),
- Attentive (you notice what resembles you),
- Active (you search without forcing yourself),
- Aligned (and therefore more serious, more credible).
In this sense, working on your appetences is not about indulging yourself. It’s about making yourself findable. It’s about becoming someone who can be spotted, recommended and sought after.
What Wiseman calls ‘the posture of luck’ is naturally facilitated by appetites.
Three triggers for professional luck
- Talk about what you enjoy doing, even if you don’t know where it will lead. You will become noticeable.
- Follow what draws you, even if it doesn’t fit into any box. You will meet people who are already on this path.
- Take detours seriously: if something excites you, even briefly, listen to it. It’s not a distraction, it may be a key.
Luck is a consequence, not a favour.
Those who appear to be “lucky” were not born different. They just moved forward before they had all the answers. They followed a hook. An interest. An appetence.
👉 Select your appetences: your interests do not limit you, they open doors. They increase your chances of finding an unexpected career, one that suits you and was waiting for you without you even knowing it.
