Creating Luck Through Volume

Success is simple. Not easy, not complex — simple. The biggest lie going around is that it is a complicated underworking of technical ability and luck.

I did not arrive at that. I sat in an Access Fellowship interview and listened to five people, and then I believed it.

The five

Herman, whose determination to build a better life after NS and A levels came out as this outgoing, completely unguarded way of speaking his mind. He communicated his experience more clearly than most people communicate a plan.

Mia, whose father had recently recovered from an illness, working two part-time jobs at once while her mother went from housewife to earner. That one landed hard. It sat very close to my own family's finances and to my own undying, slightly anxious effort to contribute to them.

Kevin, who left his family in Myanmar for an education, stepping out of everything familiar to get away from a coup and a civil war.

Clarence, a professional "beggar" by his own description, whose entire drive is pointed at uplifting underprivileged youths.

And one more — a Malay guy whose name I did not catch, and I am sorry about that — who spoke up brilliantly and then seemed to genuinely believe he did not deserve the limelight. Being that people-oriented and that self-effacing at once is a specific kind of person.

Every story had the same shape. They wanted to change their circumstances, they rose past them, and several of them turned around and helped someone else through. Not one of them cracked under the pressure. That is what the ability actually is.

What I decided on the bus

I had been de-energised for weeks before that interview. Assignments, commitments, the whole stack. Afterwards, on the bus, looking out at nothing in particular and remembering long bus rides in Indonesia and Vietnam, I felt something closer to gratitude than I had in a while.

And I wrote this down, which I still hold to:

It is up to me, and I have already decided. I am going to be who I want to be, even if luck doesn't come my way. I will create luck through volume.

What the fellowship gave me

Mentors from Schneider Electric, Constellar, and LinkedIn — people whose day job is the thing I am trying to learn.

A three-month team project on energy management, building systems to equip schools with best-in-class energy-efficient solutions and cut their carbon footprint. My part was the business model: a three-way Venn for measurable impact, a full Gantt chart, and the unglamorous work of asking how the idea survives contact with the real world — challenges, implementation plan, who pays.

And a way of thinking about a portfolio that I did not have before: make the decisions that make a good story. I have become a museum of the people I have met, and the exhibits are mostly other people's courage.

Why I applied

Because I had just worked out what hardship actually feels like — school, extracurriculars, and the people I care about, all asking for the same hours — and it solidified a desire to change things. For myself first, then for the people around me. You cannot open a door for someone while standing still.

What I wanted from it: to be recentred, to stop conforming to standards other people set, to make more friendships without treating that as a soft goal, and to be able to express myself under pressure.

Two words for who I want to be in five years: visionary, and charismatic. Writing that down feels like a stretch. That is roughly why it is worth writing down.