A recent LinkedIn post reminded me of an old book that was written back in 1977 about luck by Max Ghunter: The Luck Factor.

And I'll be the first to admit such books are mostly wishful thinking if not plain crap. But Max, who was a Swiss banker before turning journalist and writer, is also the author of amazing books such as Wall Street and Witchcraft (1971), The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way (1973), and The Zurich Axioms (1985).

But back to The Luck Factor...

Gunther's take on what luck is and how to have it on one's side comes from an investment perspective and tries to dissect its various aspects in life, including business and innovation. I'm not going to go through every idea in this book; the ones that matter the most as an innovator are, first and foremost, that there are three main types of "luck" and that each one of them could be leveraged in a corporate context.