The Luck Factor

The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind

By: Richard Wiseman

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Why do some people lead happy, successful lives whilst others face repeated failure and sadness? Why do some find their perfect partners whilst others stagger from one broken relationship to the next? What enables some people to have successful careers whilst others find themselves trapped in jobs they detest? And can unlucky people do anything to improve their luck - and lives?

Ten years ago, Professor Richard Wiseman decided to search for the elusive luck factor by investigating the actual beliefs and experiences of lucky and unlucky people. The results reveal a radical new way of looking at luck.

In this audiobook Wiseman identifies the four simple behavioural techniques that have been scientifically proven to help you attract good fortune. He then shows how you can use these methods to revolutionise every area of your life - including your relationships, personal finances and career.

©2011 Richard Wiseman (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

An interesting article expanded into a boring book

There's just not enough here for an engaging listen. All of the extra detail doesn't really make the thesis any stronger.

Mostly common sense, but worth every penny

Would you consider the audio edition of The Luck Factor to be better than the print version?

I can listen to it while driving to reinforce some of the topics. There's always something I missed; some subtle point that reinforces a topic that I find useful.
This is not so much about 'luck' per se, but being able to take advantage of favorable actions (by being open to events and outgoing in personality) and learning to trust your judgement in avoiding unfavorable events and people. Some readers may find a couple of suggestions to be "woo" but they work for me.

What did you like best about this story?

It reinforces things that you'd regard as common sense, until you put it all together. Then it becomes strongly motivational. I've used the techniques and found them very useful. Nota bene: this is not the kind of luck that will win the lottery. It's the kind of luck that has the one person at a 400 person conference who your organization needs to talk to, and who has no idea who you are, sits next to you at the luncheon and you are able to take advantage of it. Part of that is just sheer luck in his choice of seat, and the other is an ability to make a connection when the lucky opportunity happens.

What does Peter Noble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nicely read.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's not that kind of book. It's the kind where you want to go back and listen to a chapter again.

Any additional comments?

When I first listened to this book I thought the 'unlucky' people were some of the stupidest losers on the face of the earth. Then I realized they must have been selected to make the reader feel superior to them and to reinforce how the techniques can help even people who are congenitally dense.

Wiseman's 'As If' book is also very useful.

Rings True

Full of valuable information that is not only useful, but inspirational. it's so good to be able to see why some aspects of my life have been 'lucky' while other aspects 'unlucky'. The book really makes sense.

Situational Awareness

Largely anecdotal with common sense advice. Make your own "luck" with situational awareness & goal setting.

"Lucky" people find more money on the street because they're looking for it. "Lucky" people are recruited to the best jobs because they make the effort to be outgoing, friendly, and network with lots of people. "Unlucky" people are less friendly, social, optimistic -- they expect bad things to happen, so they do. "Lucky" people try, "Unlucky" people assume they will fail so they never try. It's the old "You can't win the lotto if you don't buy a ticket" advice -- but expanded into nearly 7 hours of audio.

There are several exercises to help people think about the role of luck in their own lives, but there's no accompanying PDF with these exercises.

It's a magical journey into defining luck

confirmations of what we already know to be true. being aware of them increases the chances that we will see the opportunities when they pop out of no where and get lucky.

Must Read For Everyone!!!

I have already experienced positive changes in my life. This book is a must have and gives you great actionable steps to increase your luck.

Great information about human thought!

Are you able to create your own luck in your life? I’m not sure if you can but I’m interested in trying some of these techniques and becoming more positive in my life and experiencing a better future!

I love it!

If you are among those people who believe that luck is just a random thing, think again. This book offers great insights supporter by scientific studies. I highly recommend it!

practical and oriental

very nice book, with practical and oriental instructions, and I liked the idea of luck profile

Super great and interesting book

very interesting and logical. Well-researched and seems be a really good theory. Narrator is good too

Not about Luck at all!

Firstly this book is not about luck at all. Luck is a random event happening. A lucky person rolls a 6, consistently calls the toss of a coin correctly or chooses the correct number in roulette. I guarantee none of the ‘lucky’ people in this book have any more ability to do these things than the unlucky people sampled for this book. Luck is outside of your control.

This book is actually about influencing success - in business, relationships, making money and correct decisions. This is very much within peoples influence.

There have already been hundreds of self help books written on these topics providing the same answers supposedly ‘discovered’ by Wiseman:

Do you think it is better to
1. have a positive, optimistic attitude or a negative one?
2. socialise and network or be introverted ?
If you know the answers to these questions you may not be as impressed by this ‘research’ as you hoped

Finally mr Wiseman could could use a decent statistician to help him understand his results. For instance, if your last three holidays were terrible, would you expect your next one to be brilliant? Probably not, this is just pattern spotting. It could be down to a number of genetic factors such as poor location, companion selection abilities etc however for Wiseman it is just your expectation that is the cause. He is confusing cause and effect. A series of good holidays make you expect a good holiday, but if you have always had rubbish holidays in the past just convincing yourself the next one is going to be amazing may well not be sufficient to ensure it is.

I like the narrator though!

A short paragraph of common sense padded out .

A short paragraph of common sense padded out with woo, a lot of self promotion and '100's of scientific studies' which in reality seems to be only a few flakey and fake sounding people mentioned over and over again. Wiseman is the master magician, putting on a show with little substance when you examine it too closely .

great message however

very repetative on individuals accounts of how it helped them. Great to know...but so many...you get the message of the book early and it's a great one and then the meat of the book is theses examples, the end 45 mins was great like the beginning but I nearly didn't bother and would have missed out. Really unlike me to almost not finish a book. An amazing author though and has written some incredible books without any dragging on surprisingly for a short book. Read this defo, but do bear this in mind so you get the end new insights in discovery, they were great

Very transformational.

I loved it. Finished listening to it within few days. This could change you forever.

The Best Luck I've had!

This book is fantastic. It's a good listen. Made my two week trip to and from work enlightening!

Stating the obvious for hours on end

Some people are lucky. Others are not. That's essentially what the book says. Thanks. I gave this book several hours of my time, but learned nothing. I kept thinking that it would eventually get round to telling me something about how people can challenge their "luck status", but it seemed to consist of endless illustrations of some people being lucky and others being unlucky. I got bored and gave up... and I'm a patient person.

Brilliant

Very well written and documented.
It is as scientific as it is mesmerizing with a lot of stories and interesting studies.
The narrator is one of the most talented in this field and makes listening to this book a fantastic experience.

Good but not his best

I enjoyed listening to this but I feel there's a lot about the characters in the experiment and I think that wasn't always actually useful. I think he could have made this book half the length and still got all the points across. Still very interesting.

Interesting insight.

Loved the performance. The book is read with a lot of passion. It is quite interesting to find out about how luck really works. Would recommend the book to anyone who wants to take their lives into their hands.

Get lucky

Whether you are just interested in the science of luck or you want to find out how to be lucky you should read this book one of my faves so far thanks Audible