Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I didn't say that. This is why it's hard to have civil discussion online because people take words out of context and use whatever interpretation they have. How about I just agree and say you are right? Its pretty hard to have a civil discussion when you top level post and accuse HNers of commenting like lemmings. > This is at best an irresponsible piece of writing that's clearly targeting discussions like what's h…
Like I said, if you're scared to even try because it will "never happen", be my guest. There are tons of other people in the same situation who will try, and succeed to become the character in your "cinderella story". "cinderella story" never happens to someone who slacks off. No one is saying "work hard" => "100% success!". I'm saying success doesn't happen to people who slack off (especially if they're in a bad pos…
There are many that are not even give remotely an opportunity (think North Korean resident... I'm sure you can come up with some other creativity reasons as well).
The funny thing with the real Cinderella story is Cinderella was helped out by a fairy god mother.
By the way many successful people admit that they got massive help and were generally lucky. Read the plethora of quotes from actual successful people. Even my previous quote of "standing on shoulder.." was apropo because it was from a scientist. Steve Jobs: "The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.". Delegating is a powerful thing. It allows you to work harder with out actually working harder.
> No one is saying "work hard" => "100% success!". I'm saying success doesn't happen to people who slack off (especially if they're in a bad position to succeed).
From your previous comment:
> In fact, you know what? MOST successful people work very hard. Surprising right? Duh.
They don't necessarily work harder. They take advantage of what opportunities present themselves given their starting point. What I'm saying is more of a component of their success is their starting point and many successful people admit this all the time.
You can apply this to a macro entity level as well such as companies. Companies become massive and don't have to work as hard or innovate because the can just acquire and leverage out other firms. If it was the case hard work even remotely equalled success we would have a lot more successful startups.
The reality is once you have a winning entity that entity can start relaxing and not work has hard. And in some cases they didn't have to right from the beginning. This is called the Winner take all theory [1].
Going back to individuals often for many its not even work (in the colloquial use of the word) because they enjoy what they are doing.
> If you can't tell the difference between the two expressions, learn logic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition
Its really hard to have a logical discussion when you haven't really even defined:
* What success is?
* What is hard work?
Otherwise you are just being captain obvious and saying if all things are equal the entities that try harder will more likely succeed. Everyone knows if you don't try you will not succeed.
Here is my 2 cents on being more successful. You don't need to work harder... you need to be more opportunistic and strategic.
Being opportunistic requires more than just perfunctorily "working hard". It requires stepping back some times and getting a big picture of things which some might call slacking. It often requires delegation or deferring.... some would call that slacking or being lazy.
And thanks for the link and accusation that I don't understand Contraposition. Apparently insulting people is a good way to be successful these days.