There are two types of lottery winners in the world: those who go broke not long after they win, and those who retire on their winnings.

One of them played their cards correctly after they won, and the other basically tossed their cards into the wind.

You don’t wanna be the guy who only wins for a short period of time before plateauing back to normalcy.

You want to be the smart guy who wins and stays winning because you remain levelheaded and smart when luck strikes you.

How I capitalized on my luck

In late June about a month ago, an editor from an online magazine hit me up and asked me if I’d be interested in republishing my article on their website.

Not only did I say yes (I’d be dumb not to), but I also asked how we could work together to get more of my work published on their website in the future.

By expressing interest in a continued relationship, I ensured that this experience wasn’t a one-time thing.

The editor then pointed me in the direction of their superior, a deputy editor, and I got in touch with that person.

Fast forward to mid-late July, I had a 2nd article published on the magazine’s website.

Milk luck for better long-term results

The wrong move would’ve been for me to just say yes to the initial editor who reached out to me and then twiddle my thumbs.

The right move, which I did, was to see what else could come out of them reaching out to me.

There are countless potential factors at play that could’ve led to this incident.
Maybe the Medium algorithm got me in front of the editor at the right place at the right time.
Maybe she opened the website at just the right second.
Maybe she had a dog who didn’t have to poop on their morning walk which meant she logged in at the right time that got my article in front of her.

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Luck is one of those things you can’t control, but just like with anything else in life that happens to you, what matters most is how you respond.

Whatever the case may be, I knew better than to let this opportunity to get published in a magazine slide as a one-time thing.

In other words, when luck strikes you, you better be damn ready to catch it and do what you can with it.

It’s painful to see people go viral and not know what to do with it. They think virality is the magic potion that will solve all their problems without putting in additional work.

$15 to 7-figure income

I’ll close off this article with a perfect example.

In 2013, Amy Morin published an article titled “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do” that she was paid $15 to write.

It ended up going viral. It got millions of views, and millions more thanks to the push from Forbes sharing it.

It ended up getting viewed over 30 million times.

She didn’t just sit there and let the views roll in while doing nothing.

At the time of going viral, she had no website, blog, or social media presence.

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What she ended up doing was launch her own website, expand on her article by turning it into a book, give speeches, create courses, and connect with influencers that shared her article to establish her brand.

An article that she was paid $15 to write turned into a 7-figure income.

In other words, she put in the work. She didn’t just let luck happen to her and let that be the end of it.

When you capitalize on your luck like you capitalize your titles, you’ll be surprised with how far you go.