Luck. It is something we all would like to have. Most of us look at luck as something like chance, with the attitude that there’s really little we can do about it.

But two business authors have looked at luck, and have determined that there are certain qualities that help people make their own luck. They talked to people who considered themselves fortunate in life and tried to find qualities they had in common. They looked at people who were not only financially and socially well off, but also at people who had made significant contributions to society, people whose lives were characterized by creativity and self-fulfillment.

What they found is something that many already claim to know – we make our own luck.

There were five major qualities that these “lucky” people had in common.

The first was responsibility. Those who seem to have good luck are those who also accept responsibility for their actions. They understand that their actions have consequences and, if something goes wrong, they look at what they themselves have done that might have contributed to the problem, rather than casting about for someone else to blame.

If they have difficulties, they look at what actions they have taken that might have caused the difficulties, and what they can do to overcome them.

The second quality shared by so-called lucky people is a willingness to learn from their mistakes. They see their errors not as failures, but as an opportunities to learn.

Another shared quality of the lucky is perseverance. But it’s a perseverance coupled with an action-oriented mindset. These people get things done.. They don’t put things on a to-do list. They tackle a problem right away. They either solve a problem, delegate it — or forget about it.

Another important quality of people who make their own luck is confidence. They not only have confidence in themselves, but confidence in other people as well. It’s this confidence that helps them to persevere when things get tough. And it’s confidence that helps them to really picture their goals, to visualize their realization.

Finally, another quality of the lucky is the ability to cooperate. They are able to put their trust in others and to form a network of colleagues they can rely on.

Being lucky is a matter of attitude, the researchers said.  It is having an attitude that we create the conditions of our success.

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