How Generosity Invites Luck
Some people put out luck-lines that get them nowhere. Things may start out all right but they find that instead of good luck they have been tempting misfortune. Sometimes we reach out to people—but our unchecked ego gets in our way.
Probably no human frailty is more likely to bring bad luck than an exaggerated need for appreciation. This unhappy state of mind, which usually grows out of a rooted feeling of insecurity, drives its victim to advertise his importance and demand that the busy world pay attention to him. The egotist tends to be inattentive when others are talking, he causes acquaintances to take a passive position in conversation and to therefore withhold valuable information and ideas. Even more serious, such a person tends to brag and boast, if sometimes in subtle and indirect ways.
The chronic egotist is always a candidate for bad luck. But the strong characteristic opposite to egotism, generosity of spirit, consistently acts as a magnet for favorable chances.
Note that we’re speaking of uncalculated generosity. A distinction should also be drawn between genuine generosity and the compulsive and almost frantic displays of giving which some neurotic people make.
The luck that comes to us as a result of true generosity seldom takes the form of spectacular, immediate blessings out the blue. The real reward of the generous is invisible and secret. It lies partly in their own psychological health and partly in the hearts of others—in the reservoir of good will they build up. The generous person creates an unsuspected potential of good luck that needs only a touch from chance to burst all at once into happy reality.
In luck-development we need to keep in mind this seemingly obvious yet easily neglected fact: In order to have real friends, a man must be capable of being one. We can, for example, try a little hard to understand the problems of a friend, and give him such assistance as we’re able without seeking return. When a friend is suffering, we can suppress remarks that would only add to his pain. Likewise, when a friend is fortunate, we can fight down our envy and try to enter his gladness.
The key point is that every act of true friendship and generosity is proof of a rising luck-potential within us.