We all know what ROI means.  But, what about ROL?  Return on LUCK.  Jim Collins and Morten Hansen just released a new book called Great by Choice that examined entrepreneurs who built small businesses that outperformed their industries by a factor of 10.  They call them 10Xers, for “10 times success.”

Their research led them to the question, “Just what is the role of luck?”  To what degree did luck play in the success of the 10Xers?  How do you measure luck?  And, what about bad luck?

Collins and Hansen found “230 significant luck events” in their research.  What they found was that the 10X cases “weren’t generally ‘luckier’ than the comparison cases.”

What is told in the Sunday N.Y. Times story “What’s luck got to do with it?” is their study of how luck played out in several businesses, one of which is Microsoft and Bill Gates.  They contend Bill Gates was really lucky.  However, Gates’ choices he made at certain times in his life led him to success.  Choices that anyone else could have made, but didn’t. [Read more…]