How to Create Your Own Luck: The "You Never Know" Approach to Networking, Taking Chances, and Opening Yourself to Opportunity [Hardcover]

Susan RoAne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2004

Networking guru Susan RoAne shows readers how to exploit chance to create a bigger network of contacts, friends, and acquaintances—the key to new life opportunities. In How to Create Your Own Luck, she reveals the eight traits of successful people who make their own luck, rather than wait for it. Filled with engaging and instructive stories of real people who've turned serendipity into success, her book focuses on the eight counterintuitive traits that they all have in common, including talking to strangers, making small talk, dropping names, and even eavesdropping. This handy, real-world guide reveals the practical ways that anyone can create their own luck—opening up new opportunities in every aspect of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Networking guru RoAne (How to Work a Room) shares common-sense suggestions about how to network in this run-of-the-mill advice book. Using cute catch phrases (those who are open to opportunity are called "You Never Know It Alls"), she makes the point that folks create their own luck by having eight "unusual suspect" traits. (Of course, they also work hard, are persistent and have a positive attitude—the usual suspects indicating success.) These counterintuitive traits include making small talk; dropping names; eavesdropping and listening; straying from their chosen paths; and saying yes when they want to say no. Each chapter shares numerous stories of people turning serendipity (such as chance encounters) into success by utilizing at least one of these traits. "When we are open and pay attention to signs, signals, situations, and people, we are building our own internal serendipity generators," RoAne writes. However, aside from the inspiring examples, there's not enough specific "how-to" to help readers apply RoAne's advice to their own situations. While she puts a nice spin on basic networking principles, this somewhat repetitive book doesn't add much to the Chinese tenet "luck is when preparation meets opportunity." (For another take on this subject, see Networking Magic by Rick Frishman and Jill Lublin)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Networking has gotten a bad rap. Used and abused by job seekers for years, this type of relationship can really contain the seeds of success, if applied correctly. Or so RoAne, author of How to Work a Room, 2000 (among other self-help business books), emphatically declares. Through dozens of real-life anecdotes and a careful examination of the eight critical traits of "lucky" people, she can persuade even the most cynical to embrace the concept. It's a millennial version of Positive Mental Attitude, seizing an opportunity presented by a wrong number, kindnesses from strangers, even the usual "do you know Mr. X who lives in City Y?" conversation. For those reluctant to try out the characteristics, say, of talking to strangers or straying from chosen paths, RoAne not only provides a plethora of anecdotes but also prepares "RoAne's Reminders" at the end of each chapter as a content summary and as an inspiration. A well-known artist of persuasion who shows how to use conviction to its best conclusion. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471612804
• ISBN-13: 978-0471612803
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #999,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan RoAne leads a double life as a bestselling author and a sought-after keynote speaker Known as "The Mingling Maven'," she gives her multi-generational audiences the required tools, techniques and strategies they need to connect and communicate in today's global business world. Her practical, informative, and interactive presentations are known for what The San Francisco Chronicle calls her 'dynamite sense of humor.'
She received her Master's Degree from San Francisco State University and her Bachelors in English from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she was honored at 'Authors Come Home'. She still considers herself one of the Fighting Ilini! A former teacher, Susan now lectures for major corporations and conventions and at major universities such as Yale, Wharton, University of Chicago, University of Texas Law School and will return as guest faculty for the eighth time for NYU's Summer Publishing Institute.
Because of her groundbreaking best-seller, How to Work a Room', Susan is considered the undisputed and original networking and conversation expert. She has sold over a million books worldwide and has launched an industry that she continues to create and shape in the 21st Century. Her forthcoming book, Face To Face: How To Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World will be published October, 2008, by Fireside Books.
An expert on connecting and communicating, Susan RoAne is often quoted in such diverse venues as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, CNN.com and Forbes.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong ideas, simple application for big results, June 9, 2009

By 

Erica Owens Yeager (DC Metro Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Create Your Own Luck: The "You Never Know" Approach to Networking, Taking Chances, and Opening Yourself to Opportunity (Hardcover)

How to Create Your Own Luck is not what I expected - but this is a good thing. I picked up this book on the recommendation of a colleage. From the title, I expected something heavily "new age-y," very full of personal mantras and visualizations and so forth, and I was a bit skeptical. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while the author does address attitude and framing in great detail, she always keeps an eye on the practical and the everyday. Every piece of advice the author offers has real world application, and can be put into practice essentially immediately.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever watched a friend or colleague seemingly sail through life and happen on one good thing after another, and wondered "How come that sort of thing doesn't happen to me??" The crux of the book is: good things come around more often than most of us notice or are able to take advantage of. It doesn't matter if opportunity knocks on your front door if you are downstairs at the time grumbling in your basement and bemoaning the unfairness of it all!

The one major caveat I have to offer is: the book is a bit cutesy. I understand why authors choose catchy phrases for concepts and know that these sort of phrases make it easier to process and remember information. However, while reading this book I found myself occasionally grimacing; the good advice and sound practices are coated in a thin layer of pink sugary icing every now and then. Try to ignore the style in these parts, but absorb the underlying content just the same.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable. Delightful. Read it now., December 5, 2004

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Create Your Own Luck: The "You Never Know" Approach to Networking, Taking Chances, and Opening Yourself to Opportunity (Hardcover)

I am a self-confessed fan of Susan RoAne and her work. Recognized internationally as "the networking maven," she knows her specialty well and communicates it effectively. And that won't be my last understatement!

Essentially, RoAne's message is that you create your own luck by reaching out to others, by building relationships, and by practicing proven techniques of opening the doors of opportunity before you hear the knock. The book is built around eight traits of success:
Talk to strangers, make small talk, drop names, eavesdrop and listen, ask for and offer help, stray from your chosen path, exit graciously without burning bridges, and say "yes" when you want to say "no."

As you move smoothly through the pages of this book (it's written to be read easily), you will enjoy focused illustrations that illuminate the vital traits. RoAne shares a wealth of meaningful stories that bring her messages to life, then explains again the process to follow to achieve your desired results. You can tell this book was written by a former teacher; the emphasis on learning shines through. Each teaching is an inspiration; readers will find themselves motivated to put their new knowledge to work. Summaries and action plan starters at the end of each chapter encourage application of the learnings. For some, the experience may be, in at least a small way, life-changing.

In the first paragraph of this review, I used the word "maven." This is a Yiddish word meaning "an expert, a knowledgeable person." That definition is one of many that are included in a glossary at the end of this book. RoAne uses several Yiddish terms in her writing, so the reader gains an understanding of this language. There's even a thorough index to add value to this volume.

"How to Create Your Own Luck" is highly recommended for everyone who wants to smooth their path through life. It will be particularly valuable for people in business (not just sales), entrepreneurs, students entering the world of work, prospective retirees...and the list goes on. Your biggest challenge will come when you finish reading the book: you'll have to decide if you want to covet it, or pass it along to someone else.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How to Create Your Own Luck, August 29, 2005

By 

G. Kremer (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: How to Create Your Own Luck: The "You Never Know" Approach to Networking, Taking Chances, and Opening Yourself to Opportunity (Hardcover)

Basically you only need to read the first two pages. The remaining 150 say pretty much the same thing over and over. A totally unoriginal book in every way.