[.ca] Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in ... (ISBN 1886230536)

Off-Roading Your Way to Success:
This is a book about attaining success through being human, in the freest sense of the word, embracing uncertainties, changes, and mistakes as opportunities. It's about redefining success as a lifelong work in progress rather than a set goal. If you can begin to see your future as Krumboltz and Levin advise, staying open-minded and letting chance occurrences, or happenstances guide you, the potential for learning experiences that improve the direction your life takes becomes a wide-open horizon. You don't have to decide on the "perfect" job, career, mate, or lifestyle; commit yourself to a long-range plan at an early age; or wallow in misery when the choices you make fail to satisfy. You can and should, the authors insist, go another way -- responding to your life experience, your changing interests and needs, and your ability to react constructively to unexpected circumstances. This is the book's core concept: You can't control the outcomes of unpredictable situations, but you can take charge of your own thoughts and actions to increase the probability that good will come of them. The essence of creating your own luck is seeing detours as potentially better paths even if they initially involve disappointment. Making the most of these factors involves a willingness to risk mistakes and rejection, but the authors emphasize that you don't have to take bold leaps when venturing in new directions. Small steps are realistic and effective: Get involved in a new hobby, sport, or interest group. Research areas of interest. Network. Ask for what you want. Keep learning. Shifting your life just a notch can have a ripple effect and a big payoff eventually. It's tough to stay timid about trying out these ideas when they're backed by inarguably good sense, creative thinking, and inspiring scenarios to boot. The workbook angle of this uplifting book offers thought-provoking questions and exercises to help you examine your aspirations and try out strategies for achieving them. Each success becomes a kind of plateau shaped to suit you right now; staying flexible lets you move on with faith in your own resourcefulness. This is refreshingly modern career advice that lends itself to all other aspects of your life. The only way you can fail to be motivated is if you opt to do nothing.

Luck Is No Accident:
I just spent the last couple hours reviewing this book and I must say it is excellent! I found it so fun to read, inspiring and full of such wisdom that I think it should be required reading for all high school and college graduates as well as unhappily employed or unemployed people. I couldn't help but reflect on my career and think about how this book would have been helpful at many critical moments in my life. I operated on some wrong assumptions that needed to be kicked away. For example, there were jobs that I saw offered in which I was interested but when I looked at the qualifications, I didn't match them on paper. I know I could have learned the job and done just fine. Anyway, not having a perfect match in qualifications stopped me completely and it need not have. What I liked about this book were the cartoons, the thoughtful quotes before each chapter, the stories of real people and the way the main points were highlighted and clearly explained. It is a book that is truly reader-friendly. You can just pick it up, open it anywhere, skim through it and get something out of it. As I was reading it, I found myself chuckling. The paperback is comfortable to hold and open up to read. I also liked the large print. I liked the chapter on retirement and how the same principles can be applied. They certainly work in a retired life.

An absolute inspiration!:
I loved this book! After 2 chapters I was already looking at life differently. For me, it's not that I wanted to change my career necessarily but it gave me a new perspective about my job. For example, there's this boring meeting I have to go for my job with various people in the field. What an opportunity! (and it used to be "What a drag!") Who knows how this book will eventually change my life but it has already affected my every day attitude.