the key to his success is honing his craft via side projects, sharing these ideas often, having a quick and easy tooling to publish ideas, pushing to prod and sharing these ideas. thats the key to success. the MKBHD pickup is just the recognition of the skill honed through this process.
No, you underestimate that. Being prepared is increasing your chances. There's one thing to be lucky as "1 in a billion" chance, and there's another to be lucky as "1 in 100"; the odds are always stacked against you, but with preparation & many attempts, your odds start looking better, and "luck" starts happening. (or not; some people are indeed unlucky, despite doing everything right. But that's less common than the other extreme - people that get lucky despite not doing anything rights).
Do you consider death to be giving up or getting lucky? Or had you just not considered that some people try very hard until the day they die without getting lucky?
No, the key to success is skill, with effort (grit?) thrown in there as well. Luck can sometimes play a significant factor, all else being equal. But the idea that everyone is equally "good" at things, or put in the same effort, and that it's mere chance that success happens to someone is...pessimistic to say the least.
Academic studies have repeatedly found that one of the single biggest determinants in success of just about any kind is luck. It is a very common misconception that hard work results in success, or that talent results in success, but that's looking at the successful from the wrong end.
It is rare to find someone very lazy or completely talentless among the most successful, so it must be hard work and talent, right? No, because it's easy to find very hard-working and talented people who are not successful. In fact, according to research[0], the most successful are usually not the most talented, but those of mediocre talent and a lot of luck.
They're not keys, they are requirements. And soft requirements, on top of that.
But luck is a huge component in getting wealthy. Plenty of people with equal skills, equal expertise, and equal hard work never succeed because they don't get the magical conjunction of right time at the right place.
Look at Facebook. When it was released there were a hundred products like it, but the specific combination of things Facebook did made it super popular. I cannot believe that was due to skill.
It's also worth remembering that Facebook pivoted several times before it became what it is now, taking on ideas that worked for other platforms. For example feeds were added after Twitter became popular.
There is no need to assume that everyone is equally good at things, or puts in the same effort. Some people are much better than others at many things, and yet luck is the biggest determinant of success.
That being said, it doesn't mean that one shouldn't hone their skills and try to be successful. It's just that it's not likely that you will have such meteoric success no matter the skill or effort you put in.
Luck doesn't just play a significant factor, luck almost always plays the biggest factor. But being skillful and putting in effort is the only thing you can change and definitely does help too.
MKBHD picking it up had nothing to do with his journey or level of skill.
MKBHD could have picked up something much less refined and it would have been popular, a different designer dabbling with no prior mobile icon interest could have come up with something appealing to others as well.
Being there and getting an influencer is what made this story, and can be repeated by anyone. OP is conflating the rest of it with his own trials and tribulations.
