How much of your success has come from luck?

[Cutlass]

If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.....

 

[Defiant47]

Major luck was being born into the family I did. A few lucky breaks along the way, and a whole lot of hard work, and I've come to where I am now.

So mainly luck.

 

[NetGear]

Success most definitely comes from luck, but the skill part is not squandering those opportunity given to you.

 

[Defiant47]

Success most definitely comes from luck, but the skill part is not squandering those opportunity given to you.

Exactly.

 

[woody60707]

I'm where I am today almost completely because of my talents***

I was born in the US. Even tho I was poor as hell and in special ED as a child, that you can say makes me luckier then most. I left high school with a 1.7 GPA. I joined the US Marines, and did very well. With the GI bill, I get my college paid for. So that and my 3.5GPA from Triton (2yr)college is why I could transfer to UIC. I get extra "points" when applying for a government job, that helped me land a job at the TSA.

You could say I was very lucky the marines open up a lot of doors for me. But I also worked hard to get were I'm at.

 

[warpus]

Being at the right place at the right time is important, but you need to know what to do AND have the skills & experience to do it once you're there, not to mention having the intelligence to realize where you are in the first place..

So... I don't know. I'd say 60% luck, 30% skills, 10% looks

 

[Skwink]

I won the lottery, I was born in the US of A.

And that was all luck.

 

[Archbob]

Success most definitely comes from luck, but the skill part is not squandering those opportunity given to you.

Everyone born into a 1st-world countries has this "luck", the difference is the skill and determination in using these opportunities.

 

[squall78]

Being born in a first world country: luck

Being the 1 in million sperms that reached the egg: luck

My family did go from riches to rags so that might be bad luck. i did fill up a boat (FH) on the river against made flushes so I'm pretty lucky there!

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

I have had some lucky breaks but considering how unfortunate I have also been, they have cancelled each other out, so I've mostly gotten along on my talents.

I can pinpoint two lucky breaks:

1. Was admitted to the fellowship that allowed me to become an intensivist.

At the time, I had little going for me. My record was not impressive, my letters of recommendation were not from important people, and I did not hail from an important pedigree. Worst of all, my application went out rather late because I didn't get my act together. I had no reason to expect a good outcome. But when I came to the interview, I bonded closely with one of the interviewers and because we could relate, I think that allowed me to sweep in.

2. Discovering my current job:

Until realizing my current employment, I had gone from one bad job to another, and thought that it would be my destiny to be forever in limbo. Then I met my wife, and she searched the internet and found a job posting that I would've never been able to find. It's been 3 years since then and I have been eminently satisfied.

 

[Zelig]

So... I don't know. I'd say 60% luck, 30% skills, 10% looks

I think you're underestimating looks.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

I've pretty much coasted through life up until now. I'm going to say 95% luck, 5% good looks and charm.

 

[Arwon]

I was born white, male, and straight in a country which has had continuous economic growth for virtually my entire life. I was born into an English-speaking family, my parents remain together, my dad has been continuously employed and enjoyed a steadily rising income throughout my childhood as a result of his military career.

I had natural intelligence and especially talent at writing, information synthesis and information recall and was able to leverage these things into good enough test results that I could attend a good university despite attending a mediocre rural public high school where most kids didn't go on to tertiary education.

Once I got a place in uni, I had a government welfare system and some parental support to supplement my part time jobs, which made it possible to move out of home to Sydney, and afford food and rent.

I was able to afford to go to uni because of the heavily subsidised unis here, which has meant my total student debt is only about $25 000, does not acrue interest beyond rising with inflation, and only gets paid back (via extra tax) when I have a well-paying job.

At the end of uni I have been able to use all these accumulated circumstantial, genetic and policy advantages to get a fairly decent government job through a fair and meritocratic recruitment process (another advantage conferred by my country of birth) which suits me for the time being and probably further equips me to do other things in the future.

So yeah. Luck and circumstances.

 

[downtown]

I think you're underestimating looks.

Yeah, if I'm completely honest, I think I owe a decent amount of my success to the fact that some people think I'm good looking and charming. I charmed my way into my first job with TFA (as an intern)...I did a very good job there, which got me a good enough letter of recommendation to overcome my terrible GPA from an average state university.

I think overall though, I think it's been about half and half for me.

LUCK:
*Born into 1st world country, and in a zip code with an outstanding public school

*White "enough" that I escaped a lot of the negative traits that come with having immigrant parents/latino extraction.

*Decent looks and a sense of humor that endears people to me.

*Got my first political job thanks because a college frat brother suddenly moved to a different state, and recommended me to take her place. That job ended up being a top flight race, opening up a door of political opportunities/ business opportunities I wouldn't have had

BAD LUCK:

-Not born into much money
-Member of an unpopular religion
-dad suffered from health problems entire life, died while I was in college
-Family (including me) had fairly serious health problems and lack of quality insurance
-Graduated college during a TERRIBLE economy

I haven't wasted too many of my chances. If I had been a little luckier, somebody with my natural talents could be doing much better...but without my lucky breaks, I could easily be a OccupyChicago protester. All in all, compared to my peers, I can't say I'm unlucky.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Luck dictated that I was born in my family and not in some some hog-wash motel down by the boondocks to a drug-addicted mother and no father, luck dictated that I was to have a good brain and not a peanut in my cranium, and luck dictated that I would have the proper mindset for school. I owe everything I have to luck.

 

[Syterion]

We should stop saying where and who you were born are luck. They're not. Unless you consider your genes not a part of who you are (in which case many studies say you should reconsider), your parents are the reason you were born where you were. It wasn't random (unless you think that their decision was made for them by luck, and so on through the generations back to the original man). You could only have been born to your parents, and they made decisions that affected where you were born (not completely of course, there is variability in their self determination). Where you were born and who you are is not random, it is largely determined by past decisions not made by you. It is not random, so it can't be luck. However, it is through no merit on your part, so it is true that you are not uniquely deserving of your fortune. That does not make it random and lucky, however. Just unfair.

Based on that, I would say little of what you can call my "success" (in quotes because I'm 22 and just got my first real job) is from luck. My mother did her damndest to make sure I was born in the United States and received a good education. She managed this alone, and was able to provide for me and my sister both the necessary things for life but also values and knowledge that would allow me to take advantage of the opportunity of a great education. Because of that, I knew tons about the college admissions process and quite easily got into a top engineering school. When there, the values she instilled forced me to adhere to my standards, which meant a GPA around 3.8. And all these advantages made me very qualified for the few well paying jobs for entry level engineers near major cities in a bad economy. However, all these advantages were distinctly planned for and were intentional. I applied to approximately 70 jobs, got first round interviews/phone screens to about 10, second round/on site interviews at about 6, and received 3 offers. None of this is luck, just persistence with the fact that the quality of my qualifications and ability of myself to interview would eventually land me a job.

So that's my success and how I came to it. With very little luck causing any of it. However, that doesn't mean I deserve it. That's the main point I'm trying to get across. You did earn your success; it wasn't lucky. You just wouldn't have earned it as much as someone who succeeded as much without your advantages.

 

[Hygro]

We should stop saying where and who you were born are luck. They're not. Unless you consider your genes not a part of who you are (in which case many studies say you should reconsider), your parents are the reason you were born where you were. It wasn't random (unless you think that their decision was made for them by luck, and so on through the generations back to the original man). You could only have been born to your parents, and they made decisions that affected where you were born (not completely of course, there is variability in their self determination). Where you were born and who you are is not random, it is largely determined by past decisions not made by you. It is not random, so it can't be luck. However, it is through no merit on your part, so it is true that you are not uniquely deserving of your fortune. That does not make it random and lucky, however. Just unfair.

In the context of this thread I agree.

So yes I am super lucky/fortunate for my parents, my culture, my genes, my upbringing, and the fantastic people that have been a part of my life. Also unlucky for some nature and nurture things. In any normal conversion I would attribute my success to a lot of luck. But in this conversation I do not.

My success has come from making good choices in the face of opportunity. Some of the opportunities I made up. Many am thankful for the people in my life who happened to be there. My story of getting into college is book worthy. I did some incredible things to get there, things that many people told me were impossible. Given my life it would have been very easy for me to do things like slip into drug addiction, or waste away feeling disempowered and angry at the world complaining of my bad fortune.

I have had a lot of what many people would consider bad fortune.

But with rare exception, all problems are opportunities. In business and career, problems present chances of creating wealth. In your community, it presents opportunities to make changes that can create positive political momentum. In your love life it can drive you to focus on things that can potentially move mountains. With personal problems like family or health issues you can get insights that can lead to different perspectives that can create great opportunity.

I am someone who finds opportunity. I sometimes act on that opportunity. I sometimes succeed when I act. And that success tends to be pretty big and can be leveraged into future success. I know how to do this, and I choose to do this, and I choose to believe in this process.

 

[azzaman333]

I haven't really gotten anywhere yet, but it's incredibly lucky that I ended up in a course at uni that I enjoy doing, despite almost destroying my own life in high school, and then choosing a course at uni that I hated and completely failed everything because I put in no effort.

 

[Luckymoose]

I don't always roll high, but when I do it is always a critical.

 

[Arwon]

We should stop saying where and who you were born are luck. They're not. Unless you consider your genes not a part of who you are (in which case many studies say you should reconsider), your parents are the reason you were born where you were. It wasn't random (unless you think that their decision was made for them by luck, and so on through the generations back to the original man). You could only have been born to your parents, and they made decisions that affected where you were born (not completely of course, there is variability in their self determination). Where you were born and who you are is not random, it is largely determined by past decisions not made by you. It is not random, so it can't be luck. However, it is through no merit on your part, so it is true that you are not uniquely deserving of your fortune. That does not make it random and lucky, however. Just unfair.

You are drawing a distinction without difference.