People that are wildly successful are lucky. They may have "made their own luck" by working hard, being smart, etc., but those factors are at most prerequisites, not predictors of success.
The people wasting their lives at megacorps, were they to quit and follow their dreams, would overwhelmingly be worse off objectively (one can debate whether they are richer in spirit).
I think that they've all confronted the fact that they are unwilling to risk a great deal at a small chance of success. I applaud those that risk like this and win, as well as those that fail. But let's not pretend that greatness is guaranteed by hard work or intelligence.
The problem with using “lucky” as a single term is it loses all nuance.
If I am a successful entrepreneur, it is likely I have been lucky. But the luck factor is less than a trust funder, born to rich parents. Or someone who won the lottery. And the lottery winner is less lucky than someone who didn’t buy a lotto ticket but won publishers clearinghouse (ie they had to at least buy the ticket)
The worlds rewards depend heavily on luck, but all too often I see things decried as “lucky” when that was only one piece of the equation. If we reduce luck to a binary, we may as well just do nothing and wait for good fortune.
The people wasting their lives at megacorps, were they to quit and follow their dreams, would overwhelmingly be worse off objectively (one can debate whether they are richer in spirit).
I think that they've all confronted the fact that they are unwilling to risk a great deal at a small chance of success. I applaud those that risk like this and win, as well as those that fail. But let's not pretend that greatness is guaranteed by hard work or intelligence.