Press & Media

Chase Sheffield is the author of The Illusion of Luck, a framework-driven book on how preparation, opportunity, and action create outcomes many people mislabel as luck.

Short Bio

Chase Sheffield is an author, speaker, and advisor whose career spans Deloitte, Army Reserve service, startup operations, and energy development. He wrote The Illusion of Luck as a practical framework for understanding how preparation drives compounding outcomes.

Long Bio

Chase Sheffield grew up in rural Georgia, where his father ran an auto repair shop and his mother worked as a nurse. Together they raised Chase and his sister across both public school and, beginning in high school, a military prep school that would shape much of what followed.

He earned a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering and a Juris Doctor, then stepped into a career that has since spanned consulting at Deloitte, serving as an officer in the Army Reserve, helping build multiple startup companies, and assembling a growing portfolio of business ventures. At the time of writing, he was serving as the Director of Operations at an energy development startup.

Chase wrote The Illusion of Luck to turn one persistent question into a framework others can apply to their own lives. He lives with his wife in the South and is still building.

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Sample Interview Questions

What made you write this book?

I kept being told I was lucky when things went well. After hearing it enough times, I realized the word luck was being used as a substitute for a longer, less comfortable explanation. I wrote the book to articulate what I believe is actually happening when outcomes look random from the outside.

What is the framework behind The Illusion of Luck?

The framework identifies three forces that produce what people call luck: Preparedness, Opportunity, and Action. Preparedness is the invisible work done before anyone is watching. Opportunity is the moment that appears random but is attracted by preparation. Action is the decision to move when the other two forces align. When all three converge, the result looks like luck to anyone who was not paying attention to the process.

How do you define the difference between luck and preparation?

Luck is the label observers apply when they cannot see the full chain of events that led to an outcome. Preparation is the chain itself. The distance between the observer and the outcome is what creates the illusion. The closer you are to someone's process, the less their results look like luck.

What role has rejection played in your career?

Rejection has been one of the most useful data sources in my career. Each no taught me something about my positioning, timing, or approach. Over time, the volume of rejection sharpened my ability to read situations and adjust. The people who seem to succeed effortlessly are usually the ones who absorbed the most rejection out of public view.

Who is this book written for?

This book is for anyone who thinks analytically about the world and has ever looked at someone else's success and wondered whether it was really as random as it appeared. It is not a self-help book. It is a thinking framework for people who want a sharper lens for evaluating how outcomes are actually produced.

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