

You only have to be right once - iamyoohoo
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2005/05/30/success-and-motivation-you-only-have-to-be-right-once/

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jcwentz
_Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are._

He _was_ lucky though. Broadcast.com was the most bogus of all Bubble
acquisitions. Cuban got the highest payoff per dollar of value created in the
history of start-ups.

The fact that he worked hard for 20 years before that doesn't mean he didn't
get lucky. Randomness strikes everyone equally.

~~~
samson
I think its an insult to successful people, when others go around branding
their achievements as "luck".

The fact that we were born in North America and not into a war torn anarchy
based country like Somalia, we should all consider ourselves lucky. From that
point on what you choose to do with your time and the results of that time
spent ain't got nothin to do with luck.

~~~
davidw
You should give The Black Swan a read sometime. Lots of people are smart, well
prepared, work hard, but few get the phenomenal returns that Mr. Cuban has.
That's luck.

~~~
davidw
One example is doctors: they are people who work hard to achieve, do an
important job, and certainly earn well, but they don't seem to get these
stratospheric startup paybacks, just a good, steady high return on their
investment in learning and practice.

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cglee
Luck is a topic that really deserves more attention, especially in business
schools. Almost any successful person will tell you that luck played a major
part in their success.

Being right in math is not luck; it's usually the result of deduction. It's
deducing two manifestations of the same thing are indeed the same.

Being right in business doesn't mean the same thing as it does in math. I
think that's where people get "being right" confused. Being right in business
can mean lots of different things, but most of the time, it means some idea
can generate profit. It's more similar to chess, where you can position
yourself the best you can, but are still totally dependent on other factors
(in chess, your opponent; in business, many many factors). Luck definitely
plays a major part in this scenario, no matter how ingenious you are. It's not
an insult to say one got lucky in business, as saying "you got lucky" here is
basically the same as saying "other variables did not impede your plan". The
appropriate response should be "that's pretty obvious".

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mattmaroon
In poker we have a saying about tournaments, which is that they are a lottery
and the best players get a few extra tickets. The business world seems much
the same. Luckily just like in poker, if you keep getting a disproportionately
large number of tickets, and keep drawing over and over, your chances of
winning approach 1.

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prakash
Mark's entire "Success and Motivation" series is awesome!!

[http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.blogmaverick.com+%22...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.blogmaverick.com+%22Success+and+Motivation%22&sourceid=navclient-
ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enIN233)

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cellis
Mark has his "I told you so" moment that we all dream of. Good stuff.

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naivehs
Business should be just like basketball, doing what you love. Then again if
the world was already perfect how could anyone get lucky?

