It's not a bad list, but IMO it's still missing the point. I was just promoted to "Senior Consultant" not because I worked really hard, instead I worked 40 hours a week and focused on doing the kinds of things they cared about. 4 years ago I was making a lot less money and working a lot harder and longer, because I failed to work hard on the right sorts of things. I think maximizing the return on effort is something few geeks do and while it can be fun to pull an allnighter fixing buggy networking code, it's not going to help the rest of your life because chances are nobody at the next job is going to care. Go home, get some sleep, tomorrow you can become the well rested hero.
"Luck" is often more about noticing opportunity than anything else. The are probably millions of ways you could get enough money to retire in 7 years, but noticing them requires an open mind.
PS: When your 4x as productive as the next guy you don't need to stay up late to get ahead. It's still an option if your trying to become rich but there is little value in doing that for someone else.
Until they realize there are no profits. Then they don't work at all. Especially if just as they're getting close to profits, a new "adult" CEO is brought on board at 5x the salary that the people "close" to the profits were being paid, and breaking even gets pushed 5 years (and 2 rounds of dilution) into the future.
"PS: When your 4x as productive as the next guy you don't need to stay up late to get ahead. It's still an option if your trying to become rich but there is little value in doing that for someone else."
