Customer Reviews

Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a book about attaining success through being human, in the freest sense of the word, embracing uncertainties, changes, and mistakes as opportunities. It's about redefining success as a lifelong work in progress rather than a set goal. If you can begin to see your future as Krumboltz and Levin advise, staying open-minded and letting chance occurrences, or happenstances guide you, the potential for learning experiences that improve the direction your life takes becomes a wide-open horizon.

You don't have to decide on the "perfect" job, career, mate, or lifestyle; commit yourself to a long-range plan at an early age; or wallow in misery when the choices you make fail to satisfy. You can and should, the authors insist, go another way -- responding to your life experience, your changing interests and needs, and your ability to react constructively to unexpected circumstances.

This is the book's core concept: You can't control the outcomes of unpredictable situations, but you can take charge of your own thoughts and actions to increase the probability that good will come of them. The essence of creating your own luck is seeing detours as potentially better paths even if they initially involve disappointment.

Making the most of these factors involves a willingness to risk mistakes and rejection, but the authors emphasize that you don't have to take bold leaps when venturing in new directions. Small steps are realistic and effective: Get involved in a new hobby, sport, or interest group. Research areas of interest. Network. Ask for what you want. Keep learning. Shifting your life just a notch can have a ripple effect and a big payoff eventually.

It's tough to stay timid about trying out these ideas when they're backed by inarguably good sense, creative thinking, and inspiring scenarios to boot. The workbook angle of this uplifting book offers thought-provoking questions and exercises to help you examine your aspirations and try out strategies for achieving them. Each success becomes a kind of plateau shaped to suit you right now; staying flexible lets you move on with faith in your own resourcefulness. This is refreshingly modern career advice that lends itself to all other aspects of your life. The only way you can fail to be motivated is if you opt to do nothing.

Whether you're 21,51,or 81, it's never too late to create a satisfying life for yourself" and this book tells you how in a quick and easy read. The book encourages you to follow your dreams, not to feel stuck in your present situation, to be open to changes and to watch for circumstances and happenstances that are life-changing opportunities. Don't take the attitude of having to decide what you'll do the rest of your life...you'll change and so will your opportunities. Watch for them and mine them. Day dream and learn from yourself what you want to do and where you want to go in life. Don't allow yourself to remain in situations, jobs, or relationships that you don't enjoy. "Put yourself in charge of creating a satisfying life." If you can't say " I love going to work," this book gives you many, many guides to changing that. The author offers numerous ways to make contacts, to try new ideas and situations and people, and to get excited about your life again...by first removing your fear of failure and by recognizing that no one's life goes "according to plan" because circumstances always change and unexpected events occur. Learn to view these as opportunities and they will lead you to a better life than you could have planned, if you learn to stop sabotaging yourself by your expectations or those of others. In the book you will learn how to overcome obstacles and to know that "failure is a normal part of life and learning." The book is a valuable tool for people at any stage of life, and especially for students about to graduate and look for a job in this dismal job market. A perfect gift book.

Those of us familiar with the theory and stories of happenstance have been awaiting this book a long time. Thank you, authors, for making your theory available to anyone in need of inspiration. Thanks, also, for validation of those magic moments that have opened doors for us all at one time or another.

We career counselors encourage our clients and students to minimize the quest for the perfect resume format or interview outfit. They should rather maximize encounters and opportunities. When our coaching about the need to network is met with a glazed look, let's try recommending this book instead. It makes the point that failures, mistakes, rejections, and random encounters can be the seeds of a meaningful career direction. So go forth - speak to your neighbor, thank a former teacher, chat with the person behind you in the grocery line. To Krumboltz and Levin, it's not just whom you know, but what you do about it that will create your luck.

I just finished reading Luck is no Accident today. It's a remarkable book that I couldn't put down. Believe it or not, this book came into my life just at the right time. Let me explain myself...

I'm a senior at the University of Southern California. As you can imagine, I'm currently trying to figure out my entire life in the next 10 months. That's supposedly when I'm going to enter the "real world." Everyone has a different opinion on which way I should go except for me. I have no clue what my calling is quite yet. But this book taught me that it's alright to not be completely sure of your life plan at 21.

I think what I like best about Luck is No Accident is it's incredible way of helping you unlearn all the "junk" that people have told you your whole life. We learn that we have to be just like all the other sheep in this world--following some predesigned plan that will guarantee success. However, this isn't true and most people still think that it is! This book demonstrates through numerous accounts that the best experiences in life are the unplanned ones--something so true.

I encourage all people--no matter what stage of life you are in--to read this book. And I especially hope that college students read it! Who knows, maybe one of your professors will assign you this book(like mine). Trust me, it won't be by accident :)

I loved this book! After 2 chapters I was already looking at life differently. For me, it's not that I wanted to change my career necessarily but it gave me a new perspective about my job. For example, there's this boring meeting I have to go for my job with various people in the field. What an opportunity! (and it used to be "What a drag!") Who knows how this book will eventually change my life but it has already affected my every day attitude.

I found this book pretty pedestrian. If you're a 20 something and want a set of rules of thumb to begin to put a structure to your life I suppose this book is ok but it's mostly pretty simplistic. I really wonder if the other reviewers giving it so many stars are on the payroll. At any rate, get it from somewhere where it is possible to get a look at it first. Here are some of the "insights": "Reassess priorities as circumstances change." "When dreams fail, move on to something else." "Assume your interests will change." Now here's a blinding flash of inspiration, "Take One Step at a Time." It's even got an annoying Ziggy cartoon to illustrate, "You have to construct the first rungs on your own ladder of success." Don't take my word for it, just don't buy it sight unseen. I hope Powells gives me a buck or two for it.

I just spent the last couple hours reviewing this book and I must say it is excellent! I found it so fun to read, inspiring and full of such wisdom that I think it should be required reading for all high school and college graduates as well as unhappily employed or unemployed people. I couldn't help but reflect on my career and think about how this book would have been helpful at many critical moments in my life. I operated on some wrong assumptions that needed to be kicked away. For example, there were jobs that I saw offered in which I was interested but when I looked at the qualifications, I didn't match them on paper. I know I could have learned the job and done just fine. Anyway, not having a perfect match in qualifications stopped me completely and it need not have.

What I liked about this book were the cartoons, the thoughtful quotes before each chapter, the stories of real people and the way the main points were highlighted and clearly explained. It is a book that is truly reader-friendly. You can just pick it up, open it anywhere, skim through it and get something out of it. As I was reading it, I found myself chuckling. The paperback is comfortable to hold and open up to read. I also liked the large print. I liked the chapter on retirement and how the same principles can be applied. They certainly work in a retired life.

For most of us, our present life and career circumstances are often the result of unplanned events and chance occurrence. Of being in the right (or wrong!) place at the right (or wrong!) time, of "fill-in" jobs, hobbies, broken appointments, or having a particular friend who had a particular opportunity for us. In Luck Is No Accident: Making The Most Of Happenstance In Your Life And Career, co-authors John D. Krumboltz (Professor of Education and Psychology, Stanford University) and Al S. Levin (Professor of Counselor Education, California State University, Sacramento) collaborate to encourage the reader to prepare for the unexpected, to take advantage of chance events, and to make the most of the random "happenstances" that we encounter in the course of our life. Readers will learn that it's perfectly okay to try something, to take a chance -- even at the risk of making mistakes. That we can get the job first and then learn the skills for succeeding in that job second. But above all, to enjoy ourselves and that it is the balanced life that is the good life. Of special note is the chapter devoted to overcoming self-sabotage. Enhanced with an Annotated Bibliography and a comprehensive index, Luck Is No Accident is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any self-help reference collection or supplemental reading list!

If you've read the bestseller The Purpose Driven Life and still don't know what to do when you grow up, read Luck is No Accident.
In just ten short chapters, professors Krumboltz and Levin will help you jump start your career and life in a new, more satisfying direction.

Each chapter begins with inspiring and humorous quotes--from Gandi to Yogi Berra--and includes real-life anecdotes from career seekers in their own words. Comic strips and cartoons appear in every chapter, from The Family Circus to Dilbert. And in thought-provoking "exercises" that wrap up each chapter, readers can start taking concrete steps to "learn how to change."

The book took a bit to get here, but that was out of our control. Otherwise, the book came in great shape!