What Does Increasing Your Surface Area for Luck Actually Mean?

What does it mean to increase your surface area for luck? Put simply, it means giving yourself more opportunities for luck to hit. This requires putting in more attempts, trying new things, pursuing different ventures, or expanding the scope of a current venture to attain success. It’s much easier to get “lucky” if you give yourself more opportunities to land a hit.

So what does luck mean in this context? Luck, fortune, and success are all in the same basket for this article. The ultimate outcome of luck is that you attain success in your venture to some degree - striking that "lucky break."

I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, "Luck is when preparation meets hard work." But I don’t think "preparation" belongs in that equation. Something along the lines of "The harder I’ve worked, the luckier I’ve gotten" is far more appropriate. You can try to prepare all you want and attempt to foresee every possible roadblock, but over-preparation is often a net distraction compared to simply putting in the hard work required to increase your chances.

How Pursuing Multiple Ventures Can Increase Your Chances of Success

I like to think of different opportunities and ventures as dartboards on a wall. Each project or venture you add creates more surface area for a dart to hit.

You have two ways to play this:

1. Work hard and focus entirely on a single project, increasing the size of one large dartboard on the wall.

2. Pursue multiple ventures simultaneously, adding several smaller dartboards to the wall where a randomly thrown dart could hit any one of them.

Why dartboards? Because you don't need a bullseye on throw one to score points. Expanding the surface area gives you more chances of a dart hitting the board at all. Success in any venture is rarely a bullseye on the first throw of luck; it’s typically an accumulation of multiple small, lucky breaks compounding into one final result.

Expanding a Single Dartboard

Let’s say your final goal is to create a business generating $100k/month in revenue. The chances of landing that in one shot require extreme - dare I say unrealistic - levels of luck for the majority of people. So, you must expand outward from the bullseye:

• You start putting extra effort into organic traffic channels - that adds another outer ring to your dartboard.

• Next, you begin creating social content to reach a wider audience - that’s another ring.

• Beyond that, you spend an extra hour per day hunting down warm leads - that adds another ring.

A few small hits on the outer rings compound toward your ultimate goal. The final outcome looks like one massive stroke of luck, but it was the hard work that added those extra rings to increase your surface area.

Managing Multiple Dartboards

The same principle applies if you prefer chasing multiple opportunities at once - a model I personally lean into. Instead of relying on one massive board, I like to build several boards of varying sizes on the same wall.

At any given time, I have one primary opportunity, with two or three medium-sized opportunities orbiting it that I actively work on. This means I don't rely on a single target to reach my version of success.

To give you a real-life example: right now, my primary area for large-scale luck to hit is my C-Suite position. In orbit around that, I have independent private client projects spanning web development and Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems, an e-commerce venture, and the building of this publication.

For me, success means creating a scalable source of recurring revenue to live comfortably. Every single one of these projects gives me an opportunity to achieve that. It only takes the right client requirement to establish a strong recurring retainer; if luck hits an e-commerce venture, it can scale rapidly; and ideally, this publication joins those ranks as well.

If a C-Suite position isn't in your current hand of cards, your day job can act as your baseline dartboard, while your after-hours work is spent building the medium and large dartboards you need to hit the luck you want.

Why Luck Rewards Hard Work and Time Management

Talking about increasing your surface area for luck sounds great in practice, but it means nothing without hard work. This is why preparation should take a back seat. There is nothing groundbreaking I can tell you about working hard - you either do it, or you don't. There is no middle ground.

However, you must consider the time allocation you give to hard work. If you focus on a single target, all your time flows into it. But if you want multiple shots at different boards, you must master time management. Without it, you’ll end up trying to juggle spinning plates, making a mess, or failing to get them spinning at all.

Look at your current opportunities and the time you give them. Committing just an hour or two every night is enough to begin compounding this process. Spread yourself too thin across too many boards without discipline, and you risk ruining your chances on all of them.

Framework for Increasing Your Surface Area for Luck

To turn this concept into an actionable operational model, audit your current project mix using four steps:

1. Audit Your Current Dartboards: Identify your primary target (day job, primary venture) and list the secondary or tertiary opportunities orbiting it.

2. Add Concentric Rings to Core Projects: If you run a single business, expand its surface area by adding new leverage points - such as organic outreach, content distribution, or direct lead generation.

3. Establish Non-Negotiable Time Slots: Allocate 1 to 2 uninterrupted hours every evening to build your secondary dartboards without neglecting your primary source of momentum.

4. Capitalize on Small Hits: Recognize that outer-ring hits (small client wins, unexpected traffic spikes, minor campaign traction) build skills and cash flow that compound into major breakthroughs.