How Zest Exposes Us to Luck
Good luck usually strikes into the world of men with the suddenness of lightening. How can we attract this beneficent lightening in our lives?
Over many years hundreds of people have told me their stories of good luck. More than half of them had one thing in common: the lucky episode began for the person concerned at a time when he was exposed to others—when someone else unexpectedly said something important to him. Most of our good luck—the beneficial effect of chance upon our lives—comes to us through other people. To expose ourselves to luck, then, means in essence to come into healthy human relationships with more people. The more luck-lines a person throws out, the more luck he is likely to find.
A high proportion of lucky chances comes to us through strangers, or people we know only slightly. This is not really surprising. Most of our well-worn contacts rarely offer us a new perspective, or a new piece of important information. But displaying “unexpected friendlessness” toward people we do not know is the secret of much of the luck of life. Ancient myths and parables repeatedly tell of rewards heaped upon someone who is kind to a travelling stranger—only to discover that the seeming stranger is a god or angel.
Of course, not every stranger merits our trust. We must guard against the aggressive bore, the gossip, or the ruthless peddler. But do not allow fear or indifference to block you off to the potential luck of The Stranger.
In enabling us to throw out luck-lines to strangers and old acquaintances alike, one quality has almost magical power—the quality of zest. Philosopher Bertrand Russell has called zest “the most universal and distinctive mark of happy men.” Zest is also the mark of most lucky men—a quality which, in the struggle of life, often overshadows and outweighs serious character flaws and limitations of mind.
Never confuse zest with greed or gluttony. Zest means to take an explorer’s interest in the world. The zestful person upon meeting others is curious not what they may think of him, how much money they make, or what they can do for him. Rather, he wants to discover their personalities and ways of life. He is capable of sincere enthusiasm, praise, and appreciation. The zestful person may feel angered or disquieted by events, but he loves life in all its follies. We need zest to counteract feelings of anxiety, which lay waste to human relationships.
Experimentation of almost any kind leads to zest. So does the discovery of a meaningful avocation or hobby—any well-defined core activity that stimulates thought and beckons new skill.
Frequently the things we read with zest are coupled directly with strokes of luck. Even a sentence or two, found by chance, can set off a train of lucky events. This is why books have a special place in luck development. The effort of attention needed to read a book, and especially a book with serious content, impresses it strongly on the memory, so that its ideas can be readily evoked by passing chance and brought into lucky use.