
The Role of Luck in Life Success - kevinyen
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/
======
lisper
I am financially independent and it is almost entirely due to luck. I was in a
stable career as an AI researcher when, in 2000, pretty much on a whim, I
decided to apply to work at an obscure little startup company called Google.
It was the only startup I had ever applied to at that point (until then my
ambition had been to become a university professor). Since 2005 I have
participated as a principal in half a dozen other startups. They all failed.
Being in the right place at the right time makes a much bigger difference than
effort or ability. Working hard and being skilled can help tilt the odds in
your favor, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient for success.

~~~
psyc
Around 2001, a cohort of recent grads was working on an obscure experimental
thing at Microsoft that never went anywhere. Half of the group went to
Mountain View, and half stayed in Redmond. The first half are all millionaires
now, and the second half are just well-off.

You can look at this from many directions. Did the natural hustlers hustle
their way to Google, while the naturally complacent stayed put? Did the
Googlers just go there because that's where their friends went, or because
they thought it was cool? Did the Mountain View people catch the fever after
the fact, and _become_ hustlers, while the Redmond people absorbed the
relatively relaxed culture there? Did everyone just go where they thought was
best and then it turned out one of those places was saturated in money?

~~~
aje403
Sounds like the Monty Hall problem :) keep your door or switch. I'd say the
ones who left were wiser ex-ante

------
oldcynic
Of course after someone has achieved success they put it down entirely to
innate worth, effort, skill and so forth. Likewise plenty who have deserved
success have been wiped out by unlucky timing of the dot com bust, credit
crunch, fraud.

Yes persistence pays, but however unpopular it might be around here, we are
nearly all one or two rolls from disaster - be that business failure, major
illness, or whatever, that can easily escalate into life ruining proportions.

I am far _less_ inclined to simply spout "work hard and make your own luck"
now than I would certainly have done in my 20s. Thirty more years of
experiencing life, and seeing what sheer luck, good and bad, has done to
friends, family and their businesses has changed my perspective on luck quite
dramatically.

You need hard work _and_ luck.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I'm not that convinced about the hard work part, it strikes me it's a hangover
from the protestant work ethic. If you can't achieve something in 40 hours a
week why would adding another 20 make much difference. If anything it might
make it more difficult.

I think I'd phrase it as you need _work_ and luck.

~~~
petra
Also the ingredients of hard work, I.e. preservance, energy, focus, etc are
themselves dependent on luck - having the right genes, growth environment ,
health , etc - so that's another type of luck.

~~~
skookumchuck
Claiming that working hard is "luck" is an absurd excuse for not bothering to
try.

The vast majority of people in the US are healthy and the environment in the
US is the most conducive in the world to success. Stop making excuses.

~~~
claytoneast
I think if you took the time to research obesity, heart disease, diabetes,
cancer, etc, in America vs. other countries, you would not be spouting this
nonsense. Americans have the ability to get in a bad car wreck and live
because we have incredible emergency care. That's it. That is not health.

~~~
skookumchuck
> nonsense

I'm happy to tell you the good news that the overwhelming majority young
adults in American are not suffering from debilitating health problems nor
have their lives been saved by incredible emergency care.

------
downandout
One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that many
CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain
letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire
of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that
specific data point.

As for the larger point of the article, I always frame this conversation in
this way: if you were lucky enough to be born in a first world country, you
can become a millionaire through hard work with relatively little luck
involved, but you have to get very lucky to become a billionaire.

In other words, the kind of large scale success that it takes to become a
billionaire is nearly always dependent upon numerous factors outside of your
own control, any one of which could easily put billionaire status out of
reach. Becoming a single digit millionaire, however, can be done by anyone of
at least average intelligence, that is willing to work long and hard in a
field that has historically paid its workers well. Jobs in technology,
finance, medicine, and even some trades (master plumbers/electricians etc.),
pay well enough that anyone who manages their money properly should be on
track to become a millionaire at some point during their lifetime.

~~~
nouveaux
"One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that
many CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain
letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire
of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that
specific data point."

On the point of birth month, there is a cause. Kids born before the cutoff
year for kindergarten are younger than kids born after the cutoff. At that
age, every month of development makes a big difference in social skills, which
leads to more leadership opportunities. Obviously it's not a direct causation
but this point should not be ignored.

"As for the larger point of the article, I always frame this conversation in
this way: if you were lucky enough to be born in a first world country, you
can become a millionaire through hard work with relatively little luck
involved, but you have to get very lucky to become a billionaire."

I agree with you and I would add that "hard work and thriftiness" lets most
people with average luck become millionaire. This is the sentiment of the
Millionaire Next Door.

~~~
vecinu
This is exactly what Malcom Gladwell talks about in Outliers: The Story of
Success. He starts off by mentioning how hockey players have this age
advantage since they are more physically mature than people born in other
months and cut off by our artificially created system.

~~~
dasil003
Makes sense for hockey players given the investment they need in development
from a young age and how that investment is directly based on physical
evaluation. For CEOs that pattern doesn't exist save perhaps in the mind of
status-obsessed parents.

~~~
ABCLAW
If you're the oldest individual in your elementary class, you've got ~11
months more development than your worst-off competitors. You carry that age
advantage throughout every level of education you go through, allowing you
differential access to awards, accolades, special opportunities, etc.

When development evens out following full development, you're already past the
majority of the educational sorting mechanism - you've been scoring higher and
formed by your experiences as a high performing student throughout.

~~~
dasil003
But in athletics you stop getting training and don't go to the next level if
your performance is sub-par, so the effect is magnified.

------
amoorthy
Just read this article. Very cool how the researchers simulated the role luck
plays in society with some neat models. The conclusions they reach are
fascinating and counter-intuitive e.g.

>"[I]f the goal is to reward the most talented person (thus increasing their
final level of success), it is much more convenient to distribute periodically
(even small) equal amounts of capital to all individuals rather than to give a
greater capital only to a small percentage of them, selected through their
level of success - already reached - at the moment of the distribution."

My two cents from being an entrepreneur: everyone needs luck to succeed but
those who are fortunate to have wealth and a support network get far more
opportunities for luck to come by. Or, put another way, those with a fortunate
background have more chances to fail and find luck eventually than others.
Life is not fair but so it is.

~~~
noir_lord
Perhaps to bastardise an old quote.

"When luck turns up it better find you with a bag of cash"

~~~
BatFastard
Love that.

I am looking at a great idea that I have been working on, but I am afraid to
release it because I know it will be cloned in a matter of months since I can
not afford worldwide patent protection.

~~~
amoorthy
Without much more data I'd say: 1\. I once thought the same of an idea I had.
When I finally launched it failed. So no one cared to clone it! 2\. I have
another idea I now think has merit. I've proven some traction with users.
Enough that filing a provisional patent makes sense for about $2k. Might want
to try this path too.

~~~
BatFastard
This is not my first time down the primrose path. I already have a few patents
in my basket. I been tempted to try filing it myself masochist that I am.

------
raleec
Apologies in advance but I must confess.. I don't get it.

Can someone define luck?

-I didn't choose my DNA.

-I didn't choose my parents.

-I didn't choose my circumstances.

-I didn't choose which neural pathways were reinforced based on my experiences.

-I didn't choose which environmental factors altered any of my biological systems.

-I didn't choose not to die in my sleep every night from an undiagnosed ailment.

Removing, for the moment whether or not "Free Will" exists...

What can _anyone_ choose that isn't based on prior experiences; Experiences
that they couldn't control?

What can't be attributed to luck?

~~~
lisper
I think most people believe that you can choose, on any given night, to study
or play video games. And I think most people believe that if you choose to
study then sooner or later you will succeed. And I think most people are wrong
on both counts.

~~~
skookumchuck
Studying improves your odds of success. Video games improve your odds of
failure. It's your choice.

~~~
lisper
That's true, but being in the right place at the right time improves your odds
of success more.

~~~
skookumchuck
So put yourself into the right place. There's a reason people move to Silicon
Valley, for example. Put the video game console down, turn the TV off, get up
and go to where the opportunity is.

~~~
lisper
That is easier said than done. The right place is usually only evident in
retrospect. A lot of people move to Silicon Valley, work their freakin' asses
off for decades, and still don't succeed.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that it's hopeless and that you should
just give up and play video games. But I believe that dumb luck is a bigger
factor than effort. Luck is necessary, and can be sufficient for success.
Effort and skill are neither. (And, BTW, this is a consequence of deep
problems in the system we have set up, and we ought to try to change those.
But you can't solve a problem without first acknowledging that the problem
exists.)

~~~
skookumchuck
> But I believe that dumb luck is a bigger factor than effort.

Make no effort, and your odds of failure are 100%. Your odds get better and
better as you make smarter choices, put out the effort, and position yourself
for success.

> A lot

Yeah, some fail. But most succeed in SV, the proof is in the housing prices.

~~~
marnett
> the proof is in the housing prices.

I feel like this statement gives more backing to the arguments on luck. Those
lucky enough to by an apartment in the peninsula in the 80s, who are gaining
the most off of soaring housing costs, are now reaping remarkable 'success'
with no proof they predicted, with skill, foresight, or intellect, the housing
market of 2018.

~~~
skookumchuck
Those housing prices wouldn't be going up if there weren't an awful lot of
successful people in SV.

------
SomeHacker44
I attest to this. I have had a reasonable success in life (built and sold a
few companies, have a financial cushion, a home, a small plane, etc.).

I have done everything well and with diligence but when I look at the flow of
my life, the financial success came primarily from luck. Being at the right
place at the right time. Having a good idea at the right time. Knowing the
right people at the right time. Having the right product pivot in the right
market conditions.

Many of these things worked out because of circumstances beyond my ability to
predict and control. I have had a similar amount of failures and my ability to
predict what will be successful is limited to nil.

Yes, I worked hard and put my all into everything, but so do many others I
know. I was also fortunate (lucky!) to have support systems and friends which
allowed me to take risks that turned out to be rewarding. I also try to spread
the rewards and recognize those people who have allowed me to find this lucky
success.

I also have the luck to be in a country that has reasonable government and
infrastructure (perhaps notwithstanding the last year or two), lucky to have
chosen economically stable parents who gave me a top education without debt at
the end, lucky to have chosen (ha) white privilege which I didn’t fully
understand or appreciate until the last decade and try hard to expand to
everyone now.

Yes, I made some circumstances to benefit from the luck. But so have others
who have not experienced the luck. I am grateful for my luck and work to
enable others to have a good life without the same luck. There but for the
grace (of god or gaia or luck) go I.

~~~
mv4
Luck plays a huge role.

However, it does help when one can recognize a rare opportunity, and can
quickly act on it (take that meeting, show up at that event, say the right
thing).

------
elnygren
You can only get lucky if you position yourself to be able to get lucky. In
addition, you need that carpe diem attitude to exploit any lucky breaks.

A business opportunity is not gonna magically appear if you are not constantly
looking for one and you won’t be able to exploit it if you haven’t learned
relevant skills and built a network.

~~~
mtgex
You can't position yourself to be born a white male, which I believe affords
the greatest advantages, and opens the most opportunities of any personal
attribute you can have.

~~~
antisthenes
Stop trying to make it a race and gender issue. It helps no one but the
rentier class to further divide the people they are extracting profit from.

What wealth 'class' you are born into has by far the biggest effect on your
chance of success.

~~~
mtgex
But it is a race and gender issue. I'm not trying to divide people, just
stating facts.

Attaining wealth is much easier if you're born into a specific race, thus your
chances of being born wealthy are directly correlated with your chances of
being white.

Attaining wealth is much easier if you're male. Among the many reasons are
increased career opportunities in general, less chance of a stalled career
because of child rearing, greater status in negotiations, etc.

All I'm saying is it is incredibly lucky to be born a white male in a society
which so highly values them, and try as hard you might, you can't position
yourself to get that advantage if you weren't born with it.

~~~
frgtpsswrdlame
Having a black doctor for a parent probably provides more benefit than having
a white dockworker for a parent. That's the point of the comment above.
Similarly for being the daughter of rich couple or the son of a poor couple.

~~~
tacomonstrous
>Having a black doctor for a parent probably provides more benefit than having
a white dockworker for a parent.

Sure, but having a white doctor for a parent is very likely more beneficial
than both of those examples. This should not be a very controversial point.

~~~
frgtpsswrdlame
Yes being white and rich is better than being black and rich, the point is
about where benefit is coming from. The idea is that being white and rich is
better than being black and rich but being black and rich is _much_ better
than being white and poor. Race, gender, all these things play a role but
their influence is totally swamped by the influence of class.

~~~
tacomonstrous
Your argument would only hold water if distribution of wealth were independent
of race. On the contrary, it is intimately intertwined with it. Race is the
fundamental foundational rift that the nation constructed itself on, and it
had better bring its primary focus to it.

------
pitchups
One of the most important takeaways from this article, is not what the title
suggests, but the consequence of it being true for society. It is buried in
the middle of the article and if true, is must-reading for everyone who
determines public policy or funds startups:

 _" [I]f the goal is to reward the most talented person (thus increasing their
final level of success), it is much more convenient to distribute periodically
(even small) equal amounts of capital to all individuals rather than to give a
greater capital only to a small percentage of them, selected through their
level of success - already reached - at the moment of the distribution."_

------
axiom92
I've at times stated that anyone who says that luck isn't important has
possibly never had any success in life.

There are _a lot_ of things that can go wrong in any pursuit. Hard work
shrinks the error bars in the distribution of success but doesn't make them
disappear.

~~~
caymanjim
Anecdotally, I've found the opposite. The most successful people ascribe their
success to their own hard work first and foremost, discounting all the
benefits that luck has brought them, most especially the accident of their
birth (rich country, rich parents, race, gender, date, etc.). On the other end
of the spectrum, those who are less successful tend to blame all their
failures on bad luck and discount their own contribution.

~~~
delete2
The "You didn't build that" types vs. the self-made man with a million dollar
trust fund types.

------
citilife
If you sit on the couch all day doing nothing, you wont get lucky. Sure, we
can identify "luck" as a path to success, but honestly that seems more like
survivor bias....

There are a nearly infinite number of events that had to take place for
everything to exist in its current state. We can call it "luck" or
"randomness" which then leads to specific actions leading to success. However,
in reality we are designed to recognize patterns.

If we recognize a pattern and make an attempt to improve our situation, it's
not "luck" or "randomness" its a probability of success. Combine that over a
life time and persistence will lead to success, not just one random event.
It's a series of events that lead to success, each one moving you one way or
the other. It's typically your "choice" which path you take.

I think these articles rub me the wrong way, because it leads a lot of people
to think - "If it's all luck, why bother doing anything?" When in reality it's
only you that can get anywhere.

~~~
chongli
You're already lucky if you have a couch to sit on. Plenty of people have no
house, let alone couch to sit on.

Who you are is substantially a matter of luck, too. Somebody who has two
driven parents that spend enormous amounts of time and effort raising them is
far more likely to be driven and competitive than a person whose parents lay
around smoking weed all day.

~~~
balabaster
What if one parent was never to be found and the other was always at work to
ensure you had a roof over your head and as such you were frequently a feral
kid?

Your genetic makeup is a product of the genetic histories of two people that
(perhaps, but not necessarily) fell in love and had a baby. If they were
genetically predisposed to large amounts of self discipline, then perhaps you
will be too, perhaps not. I'd say this can count as lucky... or unlucky(?)
beyond that, all you've got is your own toil, sweat, tears and guile.

"Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's"

~~~
homonculus1
>I'd say this can count as lucky... or unlucky(?) beyond that, all you've got
is your own toil, sweat, tears and guile.

No, luck does not end at birth.

------
thisisit
At the opposite end of the spectrum is modern self-help culture seems to focus
entirely on hard work, habits etc. I routinely balk at stuff promoting 7, 10
or 100 habits of successful people, CEO, leaders or otherwise, as if following
them blindly will get you any where.

While hard work helps, it takes some luck to succeed.

~~~
CM30
Honestly, most of those pieces are really just cargo culting more than
anything else. They don't know exactly why a CEO or leader did well, so they
look at their mannerisms and everyday habits and assume those were all things
that made them more successful rather than ones they were good enough to
overcome/that were completely irrelevant.

Well that and the real lessons (aka, luck has a role) isn't quite as soundbite
friendly when written in article format.

------
vladmk
I agree with this article, but a healthy way to look at for me is multipliers.

Example, success will get you there, but luck is the multiplier.

Example lets say you work super hard and become a millionaire, you run a 2
million dollar company.

I think it's realistic, however your friend with the 20 million dollar company
and 200 million dollar company probably didn't work that much harder than you,
they just chose better fields and where at the right place at the right time.

Another example non-business wise is genetics. Example: you can work your ass
off and be a really good basketball player, you'll have fun, you'll get
admiration, but to be an NBA superstar you need a ton of luck involved ie lack
of injuries, right coaches, right genetics.

That doesn't mean quit improving as a basketball player or quit that business,
it just means try your best and admit luck is a factor.

------
dang
The study was discussed yesterday at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16496898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16496898),
but I guess we'll not treat the current article as a dupe, since it's a bit
better.

~~~
polskibus
why was the title editorialized? I think it's quite important that the results
are in the title.

~~~
dang
If you mean "The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We
Realized", that's misleading because the actual result was the output of a
computer simulation. So we took the misleading bit out, per
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
It was also linkbaity, so that guideline applies too.

If you mean the title of the other post, it had the same problem and we edited
it in response to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16497343](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16497343).

------
matt_wulfeck
These kind of articles and discussions almost invariably lead to defeatists
and cynical attitudes. It's akin to saying "Unless you're born with good
genes, you'll never be an Olympic athlete, so don't bother training and
exercising".

You may not ever be wealthy by trying and working hard because of the role
luck plays. But there's value in working hard at it that everyone should know,
just like there's value in physical training that everyone should know. It
takes training and (very importantly) discipline to stick with it.

~~~
mindcrime
It's interesting... there's an anecdote floating around out there somewhere
about a famous wrestling coach (quite likely Dan Gable[1]) talking to a group
of young wrestlers and telling them something approximately like:

"Most of you have the genetics to be an Olympic wrestler. But most of you
don't have the work ethic".

Of course that's just an amusing anecdote and there's no reason to think that
Dan Gable is an expert on genetics. But it's something to think about.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gable)

~~~
maxerickson
And what if the personality traits that feed into "work ethic" have a strong
genetic component?

~~~
mindcrime
That's possible. That's one reason I don't take this quote as gospel or
anything. Like I said, it's just food for thought.

As far as that goes, we don't even know for sure that we have free will and
that we ever actually make any decisions at all. Maybe the whole universe it
totally deterministic. I mean, it's hard to see an explanation of how it _isn
't_ so. That said I prefer (well, I think I prefer) to believe that we do have
free will.

------
0xcafecafe
I think it is more about increasing your "luck surface area". If you are well
prepared in your craft you will be better suited to exploit a potential
opportunity favorably when the moment comes.

------
tahw
It isn't luck, it's money. Successful entrepreneurs aren't lucky or hard-
working, they're just people who have enough cash to operate at a loss while
they pursue an idea.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
You could argue that's luck as well, lucky to have wealthy parents or contacts
that can finance your business.

------
jedberg
Here's my feeling on luck: You have some control over your own luck, ie. you
can make your own luck.

The key is to maximize your own opportunities for luck. For example, when I
heard about the very first startup school, I didn't really have the money to
go to Boston. But I found a really cheap flight at a terrible time, found a
floor to sleep on in Boston, and went.

And in doing that, I met Steve and Alexis and ended up working at Reddit,
which made a huge difference in my life. At that point the luck that I can't
control kicked in (them wanting to hire me).

But I only met them because I made it a point to find them and meet them and
say hello, and it would have never happened if I hadn't figured out a way to
get there in the first place and made sure to meet them.

Things like this happen all the time. I look for opportunities were I can
"increase my potential for lucky things". Sometimes that means going out of my
comfort zone, or asking for something that may be a bit unexpected or there is
a good chance someone will say no.

------
juanmirocks
And then the problem is that we are biased to believe that the winners did
almost everything right, and the losers did almost everything wrong. Often is
chance.

Having said that, those who persevere, by definition are more likely to
succeed. They have more changes.

"The harder I work, the luckier I get".

~~~
internetman55
Maybe I have a stronger intrinsic work motivation than most people, but I seem
to get luckier when I slow down, assess the situation, and start making simple
but sometimes extremely emotionally difficult changes.

~~~
juanmirocks
Well, I think your scenario applies to another idea: most often we avoid doing
that thing that really is the most important, because we emotionally fear it
somehow. It can be just calling a client, or changing a career, or even
translates for asking a partner out.

For this, you are right, it is vital to stop from time to time, assess the
situation, identify the most important thing, and regardless of how difficult
it is, do it.

~~~
juanmirocks
And you are right, often in hustle mode we go fast and work hard, but don't
work intelligently.

I'm trying myself to incorporate forced "retreats or slow-downs" to better
assess my progress.

------
StriverGuy
The most important quote:

"In general, those with greater talent had a higher probability of increasing
their success by exploiting the possibilities offered by luck. Also, the most
successful agents were mostly at least average in talent. So talent mattered."

~~~
tacomonstrous
I don't understand this artificial distinction between talent and luck. Isn't
one lucky to possess the talent in the first place? What one does to develop
that talent into something meaningful is of course a different matter.

------
iamleppert
If the only thing that gets you out of bed in the morning is the blind pursuit
of “success” for that alone, or money, that makes me sad.

~~~
marnett
Unfortunately that is an overwhelmingly large amount of people.

------
jtraffic
A bit of self-promotion. I wrote an essay on this topic. Perhaps it's worth
reading for those interested in this thread: [https://hackernoon.com/a-guide-
for-getting-lucky-in-startups...](https://hackernoon.com/a-guide-for-getting-
lucky-in-startups-1ec24ee40c5c)

------
CalmStorm
It seems that King Solomon already figured this out:

“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor
to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭9:11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

------
yhavr
Define luck. The Universe by definition isn't deterministic starting from
three particles in classical mechanics and one particle in the quantum case.
Define success. Is it doing what you like being surrounded by people you love?
Or has it to be a mansion and a yacht?

Without proper definitions the entire discussion is useless.

For example, I state that I have already succeed not because of luck, but
because of my free will. And all further improvements in my life will be just
better grades of success. Argument 'if a raptor didn't kill that butterfly far
far ago you would now be slave to the vicious Uganda Empire' doesn't fit, as
it can by applied to every statement. Argument that I don't have a yacht
doesn't fit, as "yachts are for loosers" and success isn't tied to material
posessions.

------
nilanjanmishra
I believe being at the right place at the right time with the right people
matters a lot. And the 'right' part of this equation is more luck than talent,
although preparation can definitely help.

------
ph0rque
This study seems like a subtle ad for UBI. If everyone gets more resources,
the most talented will be the most successful (instead of the moderately
talented but incredibly lucky).

------
bowenli0701
IMHO, for normal people like me, who do not have lots of money in trust fund,
I have to work hard, acquire skills and obtain luck to succeed. :-)

------
whowouldathunk
We're on a small rock flying through an infinite universe. Our lives exist in
a small blink of time. Computers run billions of operations per second using
software with countless defects at every level of the stack.

We're lucky anything works at all. In that context, we succeeded just by being
born and living as long as we have, and we'd be pretty narrow-minded to assume
that the material success we enjoy is significantly more than a series of
happy accidents.

------
howeyc
That's why you should try you best to enhance your luck factor.

[http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf](http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf)

------
skookumchuck
Every detail that happens in one's life can be attributed to luck. However,
one's choices and effort are what enable one to recognize luck when it
appears, and take advantage of it.

After all, what are the odds of success for a person who smokes dope and
watches TV all day, compared with someone who gets an education and is out
there swinging every day?

------
ythn
You can improve your chances of success with hard work/perseverance though.

1\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

2\. Give up

vs.

1\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

2\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

3\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

4\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

5\. Try -> (luck roll) -> fail

6\. Try -> (luck roll) -> success!

~~~
cdancette
Only if you have enough resources to continue.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
1\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

2\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

3\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

4\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

5\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

6\. Try get resources -> (luck roll) -> success!

~~~
jandrese
Try to get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

Try to get resources -> (luck roll) -> fail

Try to get resources -> (luck roll) -> _starve to death_

You see this with people who always have some scheme in the pipeline and may
have even had some modest success (and notoriety) with one of the schemes, but
ends up dying alone and penniless anyway. They do the work, but never get the
break. The world is just unfair sometimes.

