When lightning wants to jump between the clouds and the ground, it'll always follow the path with the LOWEST RESISTANCE.
You want to protect your house, your car, your trees, yourself, and your pets from lightning damage, so what should you do ?
There is NO WAY to prevent lightning from striking close to you, sooner or later. But when it does, you CAN make it follow the PATH you WANT it to take. You know it's going to take the path that has the lowest resistance. The best thing you can do is BUILD a special path for lightning that has much less resistance than going through a tree or the wall of your house.
-- The special lightning path should be all-metal.
-- One end should be as high as possible, and have a sharp point.
-- It should go all the way to the ground through thick metal cable.
-- The thick metal cable should be straight, without any sharp bends or corners in it.
-- The bottom end should connect to the Earth, with a long heavy metal rod down into the dirt, or a metal fence post, or a metal water pipe.
Each of these things makes the resistance of the path lower. Lightning will love it. Every time lightning strikes close to you, it will choose your special path, and not go through trees, buildings, or people.