Monday, June 10, 2013

Success Involves Luck

Every time I hear a celebrity in any subject tell their rise to notoriety, it always involves some miraculously lucky event. Being born in privilege or knowing somebody in the business or whatever it ends up being, something random and lucky makes things work just right.

This is not an excuse to be lazy. Almost everybody with any value put their hearts and souls into their work. They are always striving to do better. Yes, they did get a "lucky break", but they also paid their dues.

When people are starting out in an endeavor, they want to know the right way to do it. What is the magical path that leads to guaranteed success? Well, there isn't one.  It's all random, and success involves luck. There's no way around it. But you can't do well without trying and exerting effort, so do it already.

2 comments:

  1. Consider this thought... Luck is a series of either missed or capitalized on opportunities. Example: You meet someone who has the potential to mentor you in your career path but it's your choice as to whether or not you befriend said person. The choice to cultivate this potential relationship could in The future be construed as a "lucky break", but really it was a cognizant choice the subsequent hard work that drove your career opportunities not luck at all.

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  2. I didn't choose to be a white, middle class male in America. That was lucky. I've never been in the same room as Bill Gates so i have not become his pal. That was unlucky.

    I have always said that there are people who seek out opportunities, and there are people who simply notice when opportunities are right next to them.

    I have lived a life that is entirely devoid of Bill Gates and the help he could give me. With that said, I could certainly go on a mission to get in his purview and reap the sweet rewards.

    In a similar sense, very, very rarely does somebody demand that you take an awesome job and have awesome times. It's the whole leading a horse to water thing. No matter how privileged one may be, they need to have some initiative to make things happen.

    I don't think about luck as the things that happen to us. I think about luck as which opportunities come our way. We are always burdened with the responsibility to reach out and grab opportunity ourselves, but it is not always up to us which opportunities we see, nor which ones we are able to travel to.

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