Guide to Creating Luck & Opportunities doc

About MattMatt Kinsella is a British entrepreneur who decided to write his book How To Be Lucky after witnessing many people around him passing up life changing opportunities on a regula

& Opportunities

Key Steps To Find Success

By Matt Kinsella (Author of How To Be Lucky)

www.mattkinsella.com

Smashwords Edition All rights reserved

Matthew Kinsella has asserted the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

First published in Great Britain by Matthew Kinsella 2011

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4477-7532-4

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of

the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired, out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it

is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed

on the subsequent purchaser.

About Matt

Matt Kinsella is a British entrepreneur who decided to write his book How To

Be Lucky after witnessing many people around him passing up life changing opportunities on a regular basis He saw people did not recognise these potential chances and if they did they nearly always dismissed them quite quickly

Matt started his adult life in a hostel for homeless teenagers and carved a successful career as an entrepreneur from nothing; no qualifications, no financial backing and no family connections He wanted everyone to see the potential that exists around us but specifically he wanted to help people that were unhappy with their lives and wanted to make a change Matt soon realised

he could not help people with a five minute conversation and a few pointers so decided to write his book How To Be Lucky and hold seminars to really inspire, encourage and show people how to create some luck and make things happen

I need to make some dramatic changes in my life if I was going to get out of the mess I was in.

I initially worked hard to obtain an IT trainee job which came about by accidentally going to the wrong interview and I exaggerated a bit about what I could do because I was desperate to secure the job While the company was moving offices before I could start I talked my way into some work experience

in an IT department for a private hospital in London for a month so I could learn what I said I could do in the interview After working hard for 12 hours a day and weekends for free for 6 weeks at my work experience in London (surviving

on my jobseekers allowance from social services and staying on an acquaintance's sofa bed) the hospital offered me double the money to work for them instead After 1 year working on some new corporate networking technologies I was able to become a self-employed contractor working at some

of the biggest companies in the city including WPP, Citibank and Goldman Sachs I then branched out to setup IT companies that helped SMEs use the same technologies larger companies used but for less money as well as still doing consultancy and project management myself day to day I also ventured into property development and today I am still doing some IT consultancy but

mostly I am concentrating on overseas property investments including my vineyard in Hungary.

I have also spent the last 6 months or so trying to make time to write my book

“How To Be Lucky” which explains my story but more importantly it's a guide

to show people how they can make things happen in the same way I did I never told anyone in my new circle of what I had been through or where I had come from I spent 5 - 10 years listening to people who didn't know me tell me I was

so lucky It really started to bug me considering how hard it had been so I decided if this is what people perceived to be "luck" then I could teach them how to be lucky, hence the title of my book See mattkinsella.com for more info

on How To Be Lucky

This mini guide is an introduction to the concepts discussed in my book and summarises some of the key aspects

1 Right Time, Right Place

I love the saying “Right time, right place!” It’s a very true and apt saying for how most wealthy people came about their fortune There is a huge BUT though; they recognised and took the opportunities presented to them “Right time, right place” situations happen all the time but the person or persons present don’t recognise them so they walk away from their chance of good fortune Frighteningly this happens every day Don’t let yourself be one of those that walked away from a life changing opportunity

Every new situation and every new person you meet is a potentially life changing moment or opportunity Every big project, venture or business started with some small, events like two people meeting or an idea discussed in the street Recognise this and look at every new experience or chance meeting as potential new opportunity

I got my first big break by going to the wrong interview and a few steps later this ended up being an event that changed my life If I had not recognised it as

an opportunity, admitted I was in the wrong interview and gone home with my tail between my legs 14 years ago I would not be writing this now

Not every opportunity is worth taking but recognise the ones open to you, you can always discard them after trying them, not seeing them or not using them at all is a crime

2 Enthusiasm and Attitude is Worth More than Money

When I stated out I had nothing, I was surviving on toast and cigarettes (thankfully I gave up the cigarettes a few years ago), I did not have any money

at all Finding “investment” in one way or another for the right opportunities and projects is easy enough if you have all the key elements required I found

the two main attributes you need to get what you want (or need) are attitude and enthusiasm A lot of people have said to me more than once “I will invest

in this because your enthusiasm for this project is infectious” Another statement I have heard over and over is “I wish everyone I dealt with had your attitude and enthusiasm; if they did I would buy into them as much as I do with you”

If you don’t ask, you don’t get Don’t be afraid to go out there and get what you want, ask the right people in the right way for some help along the way and you will get far My first few breaks in business came from asking the right people for a few favours It was my attitude and enthusiasm that got me those favours,

it took a lot of hard work on my part too but I could not have got those chances without asking

3 Don’t Push Luck Away

This one is simple but so many people don’t follow it If I find some cash on the pavement (e.g $50 bill or £20 note) and nobody is around I will put that money

in my pocket without thinking twice Why question it? Why offer it to someone else? It’s a small bit of luck, you deserve it, take it Too many people question things too much when good fortune comes their way Don’t think about it, don’t push it away or hesitate because someone else will take it instead

If you find a wallet or purse you should definitely hand it in to the police But all those thinking you should hand in plain cash to a police station or report it, you are nạve if you don’t think a cop won’t quietly pocket that cash With no wallet, ID or any way of tracing the owner and the owner unlikely to go to the police; if you don’t put that money in your pocket someone else will Don’t feel guilty about it either, be thankful and enjoy it

We see new things, meet new people and get presented with new possibilities all the time but people don’t see, won’t see it, are too afraid/embarrassed to ask

or question things for too long so the opportunity (luck) gets snapped up by someone else

See it, take it, use it; before anyone else does

4 What Have You Got To Lose?

If someone told me that tomorrow I had to bet all I have on one new project I was working on or give it all up and take a job in a bank instead I would (and regularly do) gamble everything on one of my new projects Life is too short for

me to sit bored behind a desk in a bank, going to the same place and doing the same crap day in, day out for the rest of my life I am happy to lose everything and start again if I have to, I have been at rock bottom and I know anyone with the right tools is capable of getting back to the top again I would rather work

my back up and go down again than stay half way up, bored out of my skull, wasting my life

Stop thinking your basic house in an average neighbourhood and nice car is important You need to take some risks or you risk staying there forever

I have had many times in my life when I have sold my house, my car, my big

TV and anything else I could to get some capital together for another project It amused me at times to drive around in a beat up, 20 year old car while others sneered at me from their Mercedes (probably on a loan from the bank) knowing that I didn’t have to go to the same boring desk job every day like they did and I was about to cash in one of my property investments so I could go on a world tour, buy a brand new car for cash then go and relax at my own vineyard

Other than your family the rest of what you think is important is probably not Let it go so you can find the freedom to do what you really want to do Don’t do what everyone else is doing, don’t be a sheep, be a shepherd

5 The Alternative Formula

There are a certain type of people I like to call “formula followers” these are the people who believed what they were told when teachers and parents said “do well in school, go to university, become a lawyer/dentist/architect and your life will be good” These youngsters set about following the formula and now they are the lawyer, dentist or architect that their parents dreamed they would be These people tend to dislike people like me because they see me with no qualifications and I didn’t follow the formula, I did it the “easy way” and I have

a nicer car, nicer house and I work less than they do I am the person doing what they were told was impossible and it does not compute in their heads They think I must have cheated or stolen something or I was just very lucky When I tell them there is nothing lucky about living in a homeless hostel then you can almost see the steam coming from their ears as they struggle to make sense of

my situation

What really makes me feel sorry for the vast majority of formula followers is that eventually the truth dawns on them, after years of studying and doing what they were told, getting their university degrees and landing a reasonable first rung job and working their way up a bit they are no further forward than most other people They earn just over average salaries, that nice big house is still not within reach, they are still flying economy class on their vacation/holidays along with everyone else, they are still struggling to pay off the credit card and

so on Where is the life they were promised? OK they are not sweeping streets but neither am I or quite a few other people who didn’t follow the formula Some like me are doing even better than the formula followers, how was that allowed to happen?

Formula, structure and routine are like death and poison to creativity, happiness, enjoyment and ultimately success Void your life of structure and routine, enjoy yourself, take in the world around you, spend time with the people that mean the most to you and you will find whatever it is you are looking for.

More on this in my book “How To Be Lucky” Good luck to everyone following the alternative formula

6 Networking

I have already mentioned how important it is to ask the right people when you need something or how attitude and enthusiasm can help you with others Networking and gaining the right contacts is imperative, without them we have nobody to ask for the favours and investment and in turn we have nobody to help so we can give back too

Seek new situations, travel to new places (even places close by just new to you), put yourself out there even if it means being in uncomfortable or unfamiliar territory for you Remember if it was easy then everyone would be doing it but also remember you will probably meet some new, interesting and rewarding contacts

7 The Salesman in all of us

Remember when you were a kid and you tried to convince your parents it was a good idea to buy you that toy you wanted or that trip you must go on or party you HAD to go to? Have you ever convinced your partner that this car is the right one for you because of loads of practical reasons but the real reason you want it is because it’s fast or looks good? Have you convinced your mates that a holiday destination will be the best one ever or even which bar to go to on a night out for only one reason and that’s just you want to go there, you actually have no idea how good it is? This is sales and we are ALL inherently good at it because we have been doing it since we could talk we just don’t realise it

If you want to get what you want, find the freedom you want and make money whenever you need to, then you will need to sell Sell ideas to investors and bank managers, sell products to customers, sell the property you developed and the list goes on Don’t be scared or put off by this, the only difference between this selling and the selling you do every day (and have done every day since you were about two years of age) is that you are selling to people you don’t know and not your nearest and dearest which makes us feel nervous sometimes

Go out there and sell whatever you need to achieve your dreams, life’s too short not to

8 Recognise Your Strengths and Weaknesses

I am so critical of myself it’s crazy and I have always been that way I studied photography for a while and I created some great artwork that I should have been proud of but I was way too critical of it, constantly looking for the kind of perfection that does not exist I am not talking about self deprecation or beating myself up, I have plenty of confidence in my own abilities I am talking about constructive criticism and recognising my strengths and weaknesses

I have started to realise that not everyone is like this and in fact it could be quite

a rare trait I see most people making similar mistakes over and over again Not the same mistakes because that would be plain stupid but similar mistakes They will go from one bad job to another, making consistently bad financial decisions, they take awful impulsive decisions without thinking ahead properly,

no idea about the long term consequences of their actions, being lazy but kidding themselves and everyone else that they are trying hard I never really thought about it too deeply before but over the last 6 months I have been surrounded by quite a few people doing this and I have analysed some others that I have known well for some time that fall into this category What I have found is that they are very defensive if anyone offers advice or heaven forbid if anyone makes an outright criticism of a decision they made or something they did even if it is quite obviously true To clarify; in most of these cases it has not been me offering the advice I have just been observing

People just do not want to admit their faults or mistakes and even when they do they will not analyse where they went wrong and why, they just briefly admit something under protest and then try to forget about it By doing this they do