5 Things People Who Make Their Own Luck Always Do

Other people aren't luckier than you--they just know how to create the best environment for good things to happen.

1. Meet more people. 

Get out. Meet people. Talk to the guy beside you on the plane. Talk to the woman behind you in line. Send a complimentary note to someone you don't know who did something awesome. You never know whom you might meet, especially if you assume good things will happen.

Fortune favors the brave, but fortune also favors the prepared. When you assume good things will happen, you will be primed to seize the opportunity when you meet--and in time, you will--the right people.

2. Try more.

Most incredibly lucky people are incredibly persistent. They try and try and try some more. Many of those efforts don't pan out.

A few do. Is that luck or is that persistence, and a willingness to learn from what didn't work so that next time you are even more prepared, more skilled, more talented, and therefore more "lucky"?

Take chances. Reach. Try. When you succeed, others will think you were lucky. (You'll know you weren't; you'll know you made your own luck.)

3. Expand your boundaries.

Doing the same things day after day typically yields the same results. Take on a side project. Learn a new skill. Open up to different experiences. Do something you assume (but don't actually know) you won't like.

4. Give.

Giving creates relationships. When you're sincerely generous, other people respond in kind: with advice, with connections, with assistance, with everything.

When you give out of sincerity and without the expectation of reciprocity, you won't have to hope you'll be lucky in your friends.

5. Ask.

Luck often comes down to the right person saying yes: to your idea, to your startup, to your pitch, to your proposal, to your request.No one can say yes until you ask, though.

Unlucky people wait to be discovered and given what they want. Lucky people discover themselves and ask for what they want.

Thank you to Jeff Haden, contributing editor for Inc. for taking the time to write the full article which can be found on Inc.com.