The Luck Factor: Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life: The Four Essential Principles

by Richard Wiseman

Book Overview

IS LUCK REAL? Why do some people lead happy successful lives whilst other face repeated failure and sadness? Why do some find their perfect partner whilst others stagger from one broken relationship... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786869143
• ISBN13: 9780786869145
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Change bad luck into good!

This is actually a very interesting book that goes off of the theory of a person's behavior towards others and inner thought process as opposed to superstitions. I always thought that people were either born lucky or unlucky but it actually has to do with how you react to the world. I didn't give 5 stars only because I thought the book could have been shorter and more to the point without all the ongoing little stories meant to be examples. Still, if you can get past all that and focus on the little tests and the advice given in the book it is a solid read. This book wont automatically help you win the lottery or find the love of your life but if you follow the book it just may improve your life even a little bit!

There's more to Luck than just luck!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'd never really thought about luck before, but upon meditating on the principles in the book, I realized that there is more to luck than just chance. It's an asset that you can acquire and Richard Wiseman tells you how to acquire it! Don't just read it - when you're finished, enroll in "Luck School" and watch your life change! I'm astounded at all the things that are happening in only four days of "school"! It isn't just my outer world that is changing but my response to events as well - my awareness of these principles is changing me! It is all explained in this generous gift of a book - buy it quick!

It really does work!

All I can say is that we got this book, and things actually DID strart going better, including getting a better job, having more positive things happen, etc. Things literally turned around. And that was within one month. I liked the exercises - very practical and doable. In regard to the idea that he didn't have any objective test for luck - Dr. W. had subjects go into rather lengthy descriptions of what in their lives had happened to support their perception of themselves as lucky or unlucky. By most people's standards, the unlucky people WERE having rather hard times. The lucky people were having a much easier time. It's important to remember that Dr. W. is sort of professional skeptic - he's not into the paranormal. He got these principles out of hard-headed investigation. I learned in the lab - don't argue with the results you have gotten! He's gotten good results - try it for yourself and see!

Fortune's foursome

This 10-year study with volunteers reveals that good fortune is not primarily due to talent, hard work or intelligence. The scientific investigation is based upon interviews and experiments with people who consider themselves lucky; the author concludes that luck is a state of mind that may be cultivated. Wiseman identifies four principles that underlie a life of good fortune, adherence to which will draw good luck into the life of the individual. These are 1. The belief that you are lucky (lucky people create, notice and act upon chance opportunities. They also have a relaxed attitude to life). 2. Lucky people make success happen by using their intuition and gut feelings. 3. One must expect good fortune, hold fast to this belief and persevere in attempting to achieve your goals. 4. Lucky people have a knack for transforming back luck into good luck. One must affirm your good fortune and have a strong conviction that everything will work out for the best. The text is illustrated by graphs illustrating the research results plus some black and white illustrations of playing cards. Overall the conclusions are quite impressive and I find the results of the study very convincing. There are plenty of exercises and the book concludes with notes that include bibliographic references. It is heartening to finally see scientific proof of the claims made by sages and esotericists down the ages

All in the mind

This 10-year study with volunteers reveals that good fortune is not due to talent, hard work or intelligence. This scientific investigation is based upon interviews and experiments with people who consider themselves lucky; the author concludes that luck is a state of mind. Wiseman identifies four principles that underlie a life of good fortune, adherence to which will draw good luck into the life of the individual. These are 1. The belief that you are lucky. Lucky people create, notice and act upon chance opportunities. They also have a relaxed attitude to life. 2. Lucky people make success happen by using their intuition and gut feelings. 3. One must expect good fortune, hold fast to this belief and persevere in attempting to achieve your goals. 4. Lucky people have a knack for transforming back luck into good luck. One must affirm your good fortune and have a strong conviction that everything will work out for the best. The text is illustrated by graphs from the research plus some black and white illustrations of playing cards. Overall the conclusions are quite impressive and I find the results of the study very convincing. There are plenty of exercises and the book concludes with notes that include bibliographic references. It is heartening to finally see scientific proof of the claims made by sages and esotericists down the ages.