First, luck was overrated, then underrated

[JAVB]

Let's talk about "luck". Yeah, that one that some would say is "the reason" to one's success, and others would disregard as of trivial and not really important (what matters is "hard work"! kind of people). Which group are you?

I dislike these losers who keep saying that success only comes to those lucky ones. These lazy ones won't do s*** and just complain. Out of their mentality and our present entrepreneurial fever/era and the Internet, we've seen a revolution against luck and chance. This is the second group... the "I can be Elon Musk, Bill Gate, or Warren Buffet" group.

If you follow the entrepreneurship media, you'll see how the majority of success stories that get publicity mostly praise the hard-working entrepreneur who founded this startup, who had this amazing idea, who raised millions of dollars... I see his/her picture and I'm like... what am I doing wrong? You never read about being in the right city, or the right moment in history/industry, the right age, right university... you name it.

My point with this post is that we need to stop wishing the "same" kind of success we read everywhere. Our story, our success (or fail) story, will come out of our hard work, yes, but also out of our own circumstances, and yes, chance and luck. Let's give credit where it is due and let's keep working hard but knowing from the beginning that f***, it may just not work. Period.

 

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[Magica]

I'm trying to open my eyes to both sides as there are many deciding factors. Luck is as important as hard work; the results may vary even if I'm following the exact steps those successful people tell me. We all want a guaranteed path to success. No, there isn't.

 

[The Abundant Man]

When I was a teenager, I went on my high school orchestra's trip to Walt Disney World. We went to this recording studio in the middle of nowhere. There was a very professional conductor that went through music with us and we got to record music for this upcoming ABC show. One thing he told us was "Success is when preparation meets opportunity. A person could practice music all day but never have the opportunity. Another person may have opportunites given to him every day but if he doesn't work for it he'll never be successful."

 

[lewj24]

Most people think luck is random. They think one day they'll just end up getting lucky. Go ask people what luck is and they will say things like winning the lottery, being born into money, or having natural talents.

That's not at all what luck is.

Luck is odds. Luck is math. Every action you take changes your odds one way or the other. Most people do things that decrease their chance of getting lucky like watching TV, eating junk food, buying things they can't afford, etc. When your best odds are the lottery... You're going to lose.

The lucky ones are the ones who work on their goals consistently. You may fail, you may mess up, but when your actions every day are designed to get you closer to achievement, what are the odds you will get there if you never give up? Odds are you'll eventually get lucky. Especially compared to a normal person.

But when described like this it doesn't seem like luck at all.

Because it isn't. It's work.

 

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