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# How a Birthday Message got me into Google
- URL: https://www.jeffsu.org/how-to-get-lucky-in-life/
- Published: 2023-08-06T13:00:48.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-24T12:34:44.000Z
- Author: Jeff
- Tags: Career, Execution

If you follow me on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsu05/?ref=jeffsu.org) or watched my video on [5 Habits I Regret Ignoring in My 20’s](https://youtu.be/99-bTIKU8OE?ref=jeffsu.org), you know a super underrated networking tip I follow religiously is wishing people a happy birthday.

For example, this is how my calendar looked this past week:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-3.png)

And these are some screenshots of my “conversations” from this past week:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-4.png)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-5.png)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-6.png)

As of the time of me writing this post, none of those people have responded to me 😔.

So isn’t all this a huge waste of time? Not to mention how much of a loser it makes me out to be…

Then this notification pops up on LinkedIn:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-7.png)

He’s a schoolmate I haven’t seen in over 9 years, we moved the conversation over to Instagram, and now we’re making plans to catch up!

## Increasing your “luck surface area”

Believe it or not, a similar encounter got me my first-round interview with Google 8 years ago, and that (obviously) changed my life!

It reminds me of this image I saw a few months ago:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2023/08/image-8.png)

Am I saying re-activating your Facebook account and wishing people happy birthday = instant success?

Definitely not.

But are there certain actions you can consistently take (e.g. have 1:1 coffee chats with a colleague from a different team once a month) that can lead to positive outcomes?

Heck yes.

[Do you agree? Let me know in the comments!](https://www.jeffsu.org/how-to-get-lucky-in-life/#ghost-comments-root)

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