330: The 4 Types of Luck Every First-Gen BIPOC Student Should Know

330: The 4 Types of Luck Every First-Gen BIPOC Student Should Know

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: [00:00:00] Before we get started, I want to share one of my favorite time saving tools, Descript. I use it to transcribe interviews, generate podcast show notes, create short video clips and record, easy to follow tutorials for my clients. It's also an incredibly helpful tool for grad students and busy professionals.

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Have you ever had an opportunity show up on your lap and thought to yourself, wow, I got so lucky, but what if it wasn't luck? Or what if it wasn't the kind of luck that you thought? In today's episode, I am going to be unpacking this concept of four types of luck and why you [00:01:00] should know this so that you can open up more opportunities for yourself.

Welcome to the award-winning grad school Femtoring podcast. The place for first gen Bipoc to listen in on inclusive grad school stories and learn about personal development and productivity tips. This is Yvette Martinez Vu, a certified coach, consultant and author, and I will be serving as your Femtoring, providing you with insider knowledge to help you reach your personal and professional goals.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring podcast. This is your host to Torah, Yvette. Like I mentioned in my [00:02:00] intro, I'm gonna be breaking down the four types of luck for you today and how you can use this information. To position yourself to not just wait for luck to happen, but to actually create it for yourself and to hopefully open up more opportunities.

So I wanna start by sharing an antidote. This episode was actually inspired by. A success story by a check-in that a client told me, you know when when clients work with me, they usually reach out to me via email or via voice memos. I use this app called Voxer so they can send me voice memos. And I also encourage my former clients to check in with me from time to time to let me know if they wanna share any updates or any success stories.

So one of my clients had reached out. To share a win. And so in one of our sessions, one of the things that had come [00:03:00] up for her was that she's on the job market, the academic job market. And right now the job market is horrible for everyone, not just in academia. It's been bad in academia for a while now it's gotten worse.

And the same is true in other industries too. So she. Wasn't feeling super hopeful or motivated with going on the job market. And one of the things that kept coming up for her was that she would see job ads and then ruminate over them and spend a lot of time over analyzing, overthinking, and not even.

Coming to a decision about whether or not to apply. So sometimes that time that it took just in her ruminating would mean that she, either she would miss deadlines or she would not apply at all. And so in the coaching session, we were trying to figure out, okay, if this is the obstacle that's getting in the way of you applying.

What are some potential solutions? What are some strategies that could help her with getting past this? [00:04:00] And so in exploring some potential strategies, I share suggestions I, and this is one of the things that I do, is I share suggestions and then open up the conversation for the client to. Either choose a suggestion that could work for them or identify their own solution that works for them.

And so one of the suggestions that she liked and was going to start testing out and see if it would work for her was a suggestion that I gave her of, okay, next time you catch yourself ruminating, what about what you know, what would happen if instead of doing that, you. Paused and then checked in with someone you know to get their green light.

So instead of making it just your decision, you can lean on your community to help you to make that decision with you. So you can reach out to a mentor, a mentor, someone who's part of your personal board of advisors, or you, some people call it a personal [00:05:00] counsel. Basically the people that you trust and can lean on, who can help give you some guidance or some advice to help you make a decision.

And so that is what she did. Instead of ruminating, she decided to go ahead. And, , reach out to a mentor. So she saw a job at, it seemed like a good position. It wasn't a hundred percent aligned with what she did, but it was still good enough, , that she reached out to a mentor at that same institution.

To my knowledge, this is all what I'm gathering from that voice memo that I received and the professor. Gave advice and also told her that he recommended that she applied. There was no mention of whether or not the application was still open, so he decided, because it was unclear in the job ad, he reached out to his colleague from another, the other department, the department she would apply to.

And they told her that [00:06:00] the application was closed. They had stopped accepting applications, but based on what they learned about her from this professor. They were enthusiastic and excited to hear from her and thought, well, you're the type of person that we would want to apply, so we're gonna go ahead and make an exception for you.

We're gonna open up this application portal for 24 hours so that you have some time to submit your materials, and then we will get them in time before the committee reviews all of the applications. Now, none of this would have been possible. If she would've stayed in rumination, if she wouldn't have taken action and if she wouldn't have leaned on reaching out to others for support Right now, , again, because of the job market, we don't know if she's gonna get the job or not, but the point is that she opened up the door for herself in this way and.

When she sent me that voice memo, I thought, you know what's interesting [00:07:00] is that your example actually reminds me of this concept of the four types of luck. And I shared that with her and it prompted me to think, hold up, hold up. This is a really useful concept that could be helpful for my podcast listeners too.

And so I, let's get straight into what. This concept is this concept of the four types of luck. Before I get into it, I wanna say I didn't come up with this. I wanna credit the folks who came up with this. As far as I know, the first person to come up with this concept of four types of luck was Dr. James Austin, a neurologist and philosopher who introduced this idea in 1978, but more recently, and this is how I found out about it, it's been popularized by.

Current entrepreneurs.

, These are individuals that, the graphic that I saw where I first learned about it was a graphic that was attributed [00:08:00] to Sahil Bloom and Su Sachin Roja, I hope I'm pronouncing their names right. , So there was a graphic and it had their names and it included the four types of luck.

And let me kind of describe what these four types of luck are. The first one is called Blind Luck. Let me just say, I don't like the word blind luck. I find it ableist, and so I actually wouldn't call it blind luck. I would call it luck from privilege, and this is the kind of luck that comes up based on things that are out of your control.

This is what you're born into, what circumstances you're born into, what location, what socioeconomic status you're born into. Again, all the things that are completely out of your control. And to me that means if you have more luck, you have more privilege, because privileges are things that we may or may not have control over.

A good amount of them are things that we have no control over, like. [00:09:00] Where we, you know, where we come from, what we look like, you know, access to, . Generational wealth, things like that, that's what comes to mind. So they call it blind luck, but for the purpose of this episode, I'm going to call it luck from privilege, or you could even call it uncontrolled luck.

The second type of luck is luck from motion, and that example I mentioned earlier. That is what I'm thinking about when I think about luck from motion. So luck from. Motion means that these are the things that happen when you show up, when you reach out, when you connect, when you take action.

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Then the third type of luck is luck from awareness.

Again, the example I mentioned earlier is also tied to this knowing what to do and when to do it. So this requires knowledge that lets you see the opportunities that other people miss. This podcast is all about demystifying the hidden curriculum. It's anti gatekeeping. Why? I want to increase your luck from awareness.

I want y'all to know better so you can do better, because I know that. The more I've learned, the more I've grown, the more opportunities I've created for myself, and I only want that for you all too. So [00:12:00] that's the third type of luck. Luck from awareness. Now the fourth type of luck is what they call luck from uniqueness, and this just means that.

You start to own and embrace what makes you stand out. This could be your identity, this could be your traits, this could be your particular strengths, the things that make you you. And in some cases, I would say, even in the example that I mentioned, you could say it was a bit of luck from uniqueness because knowing this individual, knowing her.

Intersectional identities. So she's got identities at multiple sites of oppression and knowing what she studies and how. Unique she is as there are no, there, there are no people. , Well in her department there are no people that look and sound like her as far as I know. But, , there are very, very few people just in her field that look like her, sound like her, come from her background.

So [00:13:00] that makes her very unique. So this is what you want to hone in on, like what makes you, you, what makes you stand out in a good way in your field, in your industry, et cetera. So now I wanted to introduce this concept to you because I think that you could take from it and use it and apply it in your own career and life.

And so you could think about, okay, in what ways am I privileged and what ways do I benefit from. Certain systems of power and how can I lend that privilege to support others? I know I have educational privilege and so I lend my privilege to support others through sharing, especially sharing through this podcast.

I share a lot of free resources on my social media, on my newsletter, on my podcast, so that's my one of my. I guess what they call blind [00:14:00] luck, again, we can call it luck from privilege or uncontrolled luck, is that I now have access to educational privilege. Now, think about for yourself, in what ways can you take action?

In what ways can you let go of the outcome and focus on what you can do about certain things? So can you apply? Can you reach out to someone? Can you show up? Can, how can you be more visible? And for this, actually, I wanna mention just like a shout out and a nod to someone that I recently had an informational interview with.

So just as an aside, just so you all know, I regularly. Have, , these informational interviews where individuals reach out to me because, I don't know, somehow they found out about me and became part of my ecosystem, either through my podcast, through a friend of a friend, et cetera, and they wanna learn more about me, about my life, my career trajectory, because they too may be [00:15:00] interested in either a career in academic affairs.

The work that I did supporting McNair Scholars, , or they're interested in entrepreneurship or they're interested in this area of supporting people with executive functioning skills and neurodivergence, or they're also in this grad missions spheres. So folks will reach out to me and I recently had an informational interview with someone.

Who, if I remember correctly, found me last year and found me through, , an interview that I did with, . Two professors who the, the podcast episode was about disability justice. And so since then, , they've been listening to my podcast and reached out for an informational interview to learn more about entrepreneurship, and I thought to myself, wow, how amazing that they went out of their way to reach out to me to book this informational interview.

Now we're connected, and [00:16:00] now you know, if we, we can always stay in touch and support one another in some way, shape, or form. That is that luck from motion, luck from taking action. So not holding yourself back when you think, oh, I wanna reach out to someone, or someone's on my mind, I don't wanna bother them.

Go ahead and reach out. Now with this luck from awareness, you can keep doing what you're doing. You're listening to this episode, you're finding ways to keep learning and growing so you can build more experiences, you can build more knowledge, and over time, the more you learn, the more opportunities you'll discover that way.

And then lastly, that, that fourth one, how can you think about it and apply it in your own? Career in life is really thinking about this concept of career development and career design that I've talked about on the podcast before of really owning. [00:17:00] Who you are, your identities, your values, your mission, your vision, the legacy you want to have, what you want to be remembered for, and then pursuing opportunities that are going to value those things about you.

So that's number four. And I'm trying to think of like how I can, I, I always like to share actionable tips of things that you can actually do now. And ideally these are small things, baby steps, because they accrue over time. I don't wanna overwhelm you. So with, you know, in your case, you can start by doing something small, a very, very small step to build that momentum.

Is it that submitting that application, is it asking a question? Is it sending that email? Is it sending that text message to a [00:18:00] friend? And then building awareness. How can you be more curious about what you're learning? How can you learn more about your field or maybe new fields that you're exploring?

How can you dev develop a, a discernment around. What are the things that matter most to you? And continuing to spend time on, on learning and growing in those areas. Also know what you value, so, and know what makes you valuable. So what is it about your background, about your lived experience that could attract more opportunities?

In fact, that informational interview, that was a really incredible interview, , experience for me because I got to tap into someone. Who is also disabled, who also holds intersectional identities, who, , we could relate on multiple levels. And to me that's valuable to tap into someone with these shared experiences.

And then of course. Tap [00:19:00] into your network, tap into your community, figure out who are your folks. That might mean creating a mentorship or FemMentorship map. That might mean just knowing who your people are, the folks you reach out to for advice and for, again, green lighting your decisions. If you're gonna make a big decision and you're like, I'm not sure I'm feeling uncertain, or even if you find yourself ruminating as well.

Maybe you can think to yourself, okay, this is my go-to person and I'm gonna let them know and I'm gonna ask for their thoughts about it. So I want to encourage that, asking for insight, asking for encouragement, asking for advice. And I guess just to close today's episode, I hope that you can reflect on which type of luck resonates most with you.

Is it the blind luck or what? I'm calling luck from privilege. Is it luck [00:20:00] from motion? Is it luck from awareness? Is it luck from uniqueness? , Which one is new to you? And which one would you like to invite more of? I know for me, luck from motion and luck from awareness are incredibly important. I'm definitely still trying to tap into that luck from uniqueness.

'cause we're always, you know, I feel like it's such an iterative process. We're always learning and growing about ourselves, but definitely that. That motion is important to me and also the awareness. I love learning and growing and so those two things I definitely feel like I've been consistently tapping into and I could definitely tap into more of the luck from uniqueness and then also keep owning what are, what are my.

, Types of luck that I gained from my own privileges. You know, as a cis [00:21:00] head woman, , as someone who, , even though I am not wealthy, I am finding ways to pay my bills. I have a roof over my head. I have educational privilege. These are all things that. Again, I can tap into and own and use to support others as well.

So that's it for today. I hope as always, that you found something valuable from this episode. Let me know if you did leave a comment on Spotify, leave a review on Apple Podcast, shoot me a message. Or if you're like my other listener, go ahead and book an informational interview. I love hearing from you all, and as always, I will talk to you all next time.​thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple [00:22:00] Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, playlists on all things grad school, productivity, and personal development.

The third way to support my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at gradschoolfemtoring and on LinkedIn by searching my name. Thanks again for listening. And until next time.