The Illusion of Luck

About the Book

Chase Sheffield had been told many times that he was lucky when it came to his successes. He heard it from friends, family members, and especially near-strangers, but after hearing it so many times he could not help but think that luck alone was not to blame for all his progress.

The Illusion of Luck introduces an analytical framework for evaluating how and why repetitive, compounding successes take place, and it uses Chase's own life to showcase how even the most simple positive outcomes can be produced. Sheffield argues that what the world calls luck is actually the visible result of three forces working beneath the surface: Preparedness, Opportunity, and Action.

Drawing on a life that spans rural Georgia to Yale connections, military service to energy development, and a hundred rejection letters to a career most people have not built, Sheffield shows that the distance between an observer and an outcome is what creates the illusion. Up close, luck dissolves into decisions, and the right decisions can be made more often when you know what to look for.

This is not a self-help book. It is a thinking framework for anyone who has ever looked at someone else's life and thought, They just got lucky, and wants to understand what actually happened, and more importantly, how to start producing those outcomes for themselves.