What makes an individual lucky? Is it natural talent? Being in the right place at the right time?
As part of the very first student-led Heads’ Lecture Series, Enora (13IC/RY) and Ravjoth (L6M3), shared their journey building Beri Labs, an AI education start-up creating real-world AI tools for schools.
Drawing from their own experience of cold pitches, strategic pivots, and (many!) rejections, they spoke about how to stop waiting for luck and start cultivating it. They outlined six key tips to cultivate your luck:
1. Be Proactive – Don’t wait for opportunities to fall in your lap. Notice gaps. Act on them.
2. Have a Clear, Actionable Goal – Set something ambitious but achievable. Break it into smaller steps.
3. Lay the Foundations – Build credibility and relationships early. Network. Talk to people. Make yourself known. When the opportunity arrives, the connections are already there.
4. Judge a Book by Its Cover – First impressions matter. When you pitch an idea, you’re asking for someone’s time and attention so prepare accordingly.
5. Luck = Preparation + Opportunity – You can’t control everything. But you can position yourself so that when moments come (and they will), you’re ready.
6. Fail Fast, Learn Faster – Rejection is normal. The people who cultivate luck don’t have higher success rates; they just try more. Yes, they face more rejections. But they also succeed more. And crucially, they learn from what went wrong.
Ms. Leveson, Head of Scholarship, said “Beyond their technical achievement, they spoke with real honesty about their journey, including the setbacks they encountered, the resilience they developed, and the importance of believing in yourself. Their story was genuinely inspirational for our students, and it was wonderful to see their hard work and perseverance in their presentation.”
The main takeaways from the lecture were that you can cultivate your luck, you can engineer your outcomes, and you can position yourself to make those opportunities real.
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