As is true with so many human problems, people tend deal with
this difficult-to-quantify inequality by giving it a name--
"luck"-- and then disclaiming any responsibility for how much of
it they are apportioned. Luck is considered by many to be a
force of nature, coming and going as inevitably as the tide. But
Richard Wiseman, a professor at Britain's University of
Hertfordshire, has conducted some experiments which indicate to
him that we have a lot more influence on our own good fortune
than we realize. Professor Wiseman executed a ten-year study to
determine the nature of luck, and published his findings in a
book called The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky
Mind. Among other things, he experimentally studied the lottery
winnings from people who count themselves as "lucky" and
compared them to those who are self-described as "unlucky," and
found that one's perception of their own luck before a lottery
has no bearing on their likelihood of winning. Naturally this
outcome was no surprise, becaus