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Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

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Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#21

Post by make_it_sure »

Poker is the best analogy... for the entire life's success, not just entrepreneurship.

You've got a set of cards, some of them can be really good, some really bad. This can the country you were born, family financial power, genes, etc

If you have great cards and play poorly, you can still lose pretty badly. If you have bad cards initially and know how to take advantage of opportunities (new cards that are dealt), you can win.

Hard work is improving your chances for success, you'll unlock more opportunities and it's up to you how you handle them.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#23

Post by Ekaros »

TheRoque wrote: post #15
SaberTail wrote: post #4

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who worked hard and still failed in business due to bad luck. This article is pure fluff.

And some people work really hard but in the wrong direction, or lack the talent. Just go on game dev subreddits, it's full of people that dedicated one or multiple years to making a game nobody wants to play.

Indie games is one market where just being pretty good or competent is not enough due to saturation. It might have been long time ago, but not anymore. Same goes for most arts... Just how saturated market is is a big question to ask. With too saturated market you just really need to be both very good and lucky that is noticed.

In less saturated markets being competent and working hard enough to sell might be enough.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#24

Post by yakito »

It's not hard work, nor luck. It's who you know. Then one could argue that "who you know" might be the product of either luck or hard work, which would be a valid answer. In any case, I believe knowing the right people with the right connections is the difference between having a successful business or not (at least in my industry)

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#25

Post by pak9rabid »

Lot of people here are saying luck is a huge factor, which it can be. However, you still need to put in the hard work to have something ready for when that lucky opportunity does come knocking. So in summary, your 'lucky moment' depends on the prior hard work that's been put into whatever it is you're making.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#26

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

burnt_toast wrote: post #7

Why can't it be both? You can work hard and the business can still flop due to things outside of your control. I started a business a year before Covid hit. I worked hard and did multiple weeks of working 6 - 7 days. Then Covid popped up and my customer base slowly dried up due to people struggling to make ends meet. Working hard wouldn't have prevent Covid.

Yea, it certainly isn't all one or the other, but people are on average quite bad at estimating the precise degree to which we have control over uncertain outcomes, and tend to wildly over or under estimate based on emotions, biases and superstitions.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#27

Post by is_true »

burnt_toast wrote: post #7

Why can't it be both? You can work hard and the business can still flop due to things outside of your control. I started a business a year before Covid hit. I worked hard and did multiple weeks of working 6 - 7 days. Then Covid popped up and my customer base slowly dried up due to people struggling to make ends meet. Working hard wouldn't have prevent Covid.

One of the products I built was profitable because I sent a tweet to some guy, he answered, gave me the contact to some other guy that was in charge of purchases and he told me send me a proposal, which he later accepted.

I would call that 99% luck, because I had done that before in multiple occasions but no one answered.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#29

Post by robotguy »

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ― Seneca

I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have. -Coleman Cox

“If you trust in yourself. . .and believe in your dreams. . .and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.” ― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Hard work lets you capitalize on small opportunities. Without it you'd need a 3-sigma occurrence to benefit. Of course, those are the types you hear about, because they make great stories.

Re: Hard work wins in business (a.k.a. it ain't just about luck)

#30

Post by keiferski »

This blog post doesn't have much useful content, but I'll add a piece of advice I wish someone had told me when I was ±15:

Most decision makers are fundamentally lazy. When they're choosing the person to promote to manager, the employee to hire, the startup company to invest in, or the restaurant to have lunch at, the decision methodology used is in no way optimal or hyper-rational. It's mostly just based what's familiar, nearby, and available.

And so realistically when great opportunities are available, the people getting them are not the best and brightest in the world, they're the best and brightest in the room – which often pale in comparison to the world at large. But they're good enough, familiar, and available, and so they are able to capitalize on those opportunities.

Thus the piece of advice is: find that room and get yourself inside, because the opportunity is not going to come looking for you.

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