How necessary is happiness to do an excellent job?
Lucky Generals' founding partner Andy Nairn talks to us about why brands and organizations should pursue strategies to encourage a stroke of luck – as well as realizing the positive aspects of bad luck
"I found this whole subject of happiness quite interesting because nobody is talking about it," says Andy Nairn, founding partner of Lucky Generals. "People don't like to admit it, do they? People don't want to suggest that what they did was lucky. It suggests that we didn't work hard, or it's an insult to talk about luck . "
Luck plays a central role in the name of his agency, not just for the word itself, but also for the genesis. The founders discovered that the name they originally had in mind was being used by another company, and at the last minute they went with Lucky Generals – a name that Nairn's creative partner Danny Brooke-Taylor had since he was a teenager thought about using it for his band. Despite having a direct connection with his agency, Nairn never really talked about happiness. "In the seven years that we have led Lucky Generals, I have probably never used the word 'luck' other than in our name."
That will all change when Nairn's upcoming book Go Luck Yourself picks out forty principles to “stack the odds in favor of your brand” on happiness. The book is divided into four sections – appreciate what you've got; looking for opportunities everywhere; Turn unhappiness into happiness; and practice being lucky – illustrated by historical examples and case studies in which both companies and individuals have embraced luck to their advantage. These stand alongside his own experience from almost 30 years of work in the advertising business and knowledge from other areas. "Happiness affects everything in life, doesn't it? I've been trying to learn lessons from science – there have been tons of scientific discoveries that actually got lucky – or from history, politics, or the arts, and I was just trying to find out what smart people in other areas have said about happiness and how it could apply to the [advertising] world. "
The idea came about during the lockdown, when Nairn, like most people, felt lucky about "all these waves of terrible things affecting everyone – trying to run a business and all these things, that were inflicted upon us, ”he recalls. “Then I said to myself to come out a bit, because there are actually a lot of people who are much worse affected than me. I am very isolated from the worst things that are going on in the world right now. "He began to think about how to do something more positive with his time and wondered," Is there anything to do about happiness that could bring happiness to other people? "
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