Earlier this week, I shared a takeaway from an interview with the founder of Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein. I enjoyed that interview and had many more takeaways. Some of them were presented casually as simple, common-knowledge concepts that nevertheless take some people a lifetime to figure out. Understanding the power of some of the concepts David shared, and implementing them, can change your trajectory. Here’s another trajectory-changing takeaway: you can create your own luck.

When David was starting Carlyle, he didn’t want to build a firm that was all white males. He approached Gracia Martore, a female executive of Latino descent. She declined to join the firm but suggested he talk to Bill Conway Jr., who was transitioning out of a telecommunications CFO role. David had never heard of Bill, but he called him. They connected, and Bill became a cofounder of Carlyle.

The big takeaway from this story is that you can create your own luck. Luck is about the probability of a favorable outcome. You can increase the probability of good things happening, and create your own luck, by taking certain actions. In David’s example, he networked and chatted with people, which led to opportunities. Not the opportunity he was aiming for (Gracia), but a great one nonetheless (Bill).

If you want to achieve outsize success, you can increase the chances of it happening by creating your own luck.

Take a listen to David’s comments on creating your own luck here.