How much of your success has come from luck?

[Leifmk]

Ignoring the "born white in what might be the world's richest country, and to some pretty good parents" part of luck:

I've had (counting) two major lucky breaks that have resulted in me being where and who I am today.

1: Marriage. Met my wife at a Norwegian Usenet meetup (the last of its kind, actually, held well after the end of Usenet's glory days). Well, we'd known each other online for years, but it was the first time we ever met in person. The major lucky break here is that this meet was held THE SAME WEEK that smoking in public buildings was banned in Norway; prior to that, I always used to have to call it a night pretty early when I was out in pubs etc. as the smoke always bothered me and made me increasingly uncomfortable. If not for the ban having come into force, there's no way I'd have stayed at the meet as late as I did, and we wouldn't have had those hours to hit it off as we did. And it's pretty unlikely that we'd have run into each other again as we lived in different cities back then.

2: Job. A year after point 1, I moved south to live with my then-girlfriend, now-wife. My main skills were (and are) programming in an obscure language that almost nobody has even heard of, which I learned at my previous job. IT JUST SO HAPPENED that another friend from the same Usenet social group worked at a place where they used the same language and were one programmer short. (There are literally three places in the whole country where this language is used, as far as I know.) Since legacy systems never die this essentially means total job security forever.

In short, the luckiest decision I ever made was hanging around on Usenet back in the 1990s.

 

[Tee Kay]

My successes are almost all due to luck. My failures, on the other hand, are mostly self-inflicted.

 

[Tahuti]

If I may say so myself, I think my current position was achieved first and foremost because of my skills and talents. It certainly wasn't luck, as that was often against me.

 

[Core Imposter]

What success?

 

[warpus]

I think you're underestimating looks.

Mom, is this you??

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I didn't get into university and this lab job because of luck. I had to work hard for my academic reputation. I guess you could call being born to a mother who would sacrifice sweat and blood just to see her sons finish their education and have opportunities (such as immigrating here) as luck, but that would be a disservice to her efforts.

 

[Syterion]

You are drawing a distinction without difference.

The words unfair and lucky mean different things, do they not? In the context of the thread, the way in which things are unfair are what people are calling "luck," but that doesn't mean that they are describing it properly. I understand that with my distinction people will be citing the same things, but with my distinction they'll be citing correctly.

 

[Verarde]

downtown, I owe everything to you.

Seriously though, I'm only 16, and barely into the workforce, so I cannot say so far what has been work and what has been luck.

School wise, yes, lots of work for that, and maybe some blessing in that I'm in an environment that I enjoy and works for me.

With life in general, things are just working out for me right now, but I'm not attributing that to luck as much as (don't hate) I attribute it to God blessing me right now.

 

[Arwon]

The words unfair and lucky mean different things, do they not? In the context of the thread, the way in which things are unfair are what people are calling "luck," but that doesn't mean that they are describing it properly. I understand that with my distinction people will be citing the same things, but with my distinction they'll be citing correctly.

Birth circumstances are a lottery. I was lucky to be born into a good family situation in one of the top 2 or 3 countries for living standards in the world, with genetic traits that lend themselves to success.

Simple as that. I don't see the difference you think you're defining.

 

[wolfigor]

In my career I had a few good opportunities that to some extent you call luck.

My first serious job after university was one of those opportunities: I landed in a international company that had great prospects, did grow steadily (giving me more opportunities), and gave me considerable help and mentoring.

At the time I decided to work for them I didn't know it was going to be so positive, I could have ended in other companies that went belly-up shortly after but that at the time looked quite promising.

After that it was all hard work, I loved what I was doing and I was doing it well.

My main skills were (and are) programming in an obscure language that almost nobody has even heard of

which language?

 

[Leifmk]

which language?

It is called NATURAL and is closely associated with a database management system called ADABAS. We're talking 1970s - 1980s era technology here, huge old legacy database systems developed on mainframes, in the days where storage space was expensive and processors were slow (and while punch cards may have been more or less gone, a significant portion of the programmers you'd meet had first learned the trade using punch cards). This DMBs carved out a special niche for itself because it's good at handling and searching through huge amounts of data with excellent speed and high stability, so it's mainly used by huge organizations that need immensely huge databases with (usually) a crapload of associated applications for extraction and analysis of data. Legacy systems of that size never die because it cost dozens of programmer-years (at least) to develop them in the first place and it would cost something similar to develop a proper replacement, while it is way cheaper to just pay one guy to maintain what already exists.

 

[wolfigor]

It is called NATURAL and is closely associated with a database management system called ADABAS.

wow... that's really obscure!
I had to look up for it in wikipedia.

I perfectly understand why it's such a secure job... I have a couple of friends that got into a similar niche.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

There is no such thing as coincidence or luck.

 

[Syterion]

Birth circumstances are a lottery. I was lucky to be born into a good family situation in one of the top 2 or 3 countries for living standards in the world, with genetic traits that lend themselves to success.

Simple as that. I don't see the difference you think you're defining.

A lottery implies chance. It was NOT chance that you were born where you were to who you were. Only the genetic traits are lucky, and it was still not completely, because your parents largely determine most. Your parents decision to live where they did and they are who they were. You could never have been very different, it is foolish to think otherwise.

 

[Arwon]

Again, I don't see what distinction you think you're making? External uncontrollable circumstances are a matter of luck, of course it was pure chance that I was born me, and not in the slums of Nairobi. I certainly didn't achieve that myself.

 

[Disgustipated]

What success?

I'm with this one. I have had some financial success, but no success with love.

The financial success is actually fairly moderate, but I grew up poor, so it seems like a lot to me. That was entirely my doing (aside from being born in the U.S. of course). There really was no luck involved.

 

[jtb1127]

If I had any success I'd say yes.

 

[aronnax]

I was lucky enough to be born in a family affluent enough to pay for an education system that fitted my mindset better than the Singaporean system.

At least in terms of School 'career', I wouldn't have as much opportunities if I was forced into the narrow-minded ditch that is the Singaporean Education System.

 

[emzie]

Birth circumstances are a lottery. I was lucky to be born into a good family situation in one of the top 2 or 3 countries for living standards in the world, with genetic traits that lend themselves to success.

Simple as that. I don't see the difference you think you're defining.

It's not really a lottery. "You" didn't exist until you were conceived. "You" couldn't've ever been born a poor Ethiopian farmer.

 

[Tee Kay]

Reincarnation.