Do You Consider Yourself Lucky or Unlucky?

I am a huge fan of Derren Brown. He is essentially a magician but combines a whole bunch of techniques in suggestion, hypnosis, misdirection and showmanship to achieve his results.

One of the biggest reasons why I like him is because he is an atheist and openly shows that he can manipulate the same techniques as those achieved by so called psychics, fortune tellers, religious fundamentalists, and others. Therefore solidifying that they do not exist.

I watched a recent episode (sorry non UK guys if you cant watch it) of his about luck. Its a kinda interesting question especially that we play poker, but he asks you;

"Do you consider yourself a lucky person?"

In the show, Derren creates a rumour of a lucky dog statue, of which self professed into actually making the village seem lucky. The show documents a few people around the village, some who consider themselves to be lucky and others who consider themselves to be unlucky.

The unlucky guy essentially is a person who doesn't take opportunities, choosing to say no. This was in  comparison to the "lucky" landlady who helped a person fix his tires on his car, who happened to be a comedian who ended up offering to do a gig at her pub. Consequently meaning that she had a great night in which more people turned up to see the comedian, and ended up making a lot of money from the big turnout of people buying drinks.

There were some situations in which the unlucky guy was set up, in which if he took the opportunities then good things would happen to him. One of them was that a 50 pound note was literally right there on the road on his walking path and he didn't see it.

Just comes to show that if you consider yourself as an unlucky person, it basically means that you are a "safe" person who chooses to say no more often then not. Not getting involved and not looking for opportunities means that you don't get those "lucky" chances that lead to other things.

For sure I have believed that I was unlucky, especially in comparison to my brother. But in reflection, I really do remember saying no a lot more in comparison to yes. Being closed and safe and given me less opportunities and made me feel like I am unlucky.

In poker we always judge our plays based on the long term plays, but one could argue that our reluctance to spew in some spots means that we lose the experience of understanding those spots better. I certainly think that I have had a bias towards folding in certain close spots in which I've had because of the fear of spewing.

The reasoning for saying NO, because of the fear of things going wrong when saying yes... ultimately is a losing "unlucky person" play in the overall scheme of life!