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The Role of Luck in Life Success

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#71

Post by tonyedgecombe »

oldcynic wrote: post #28

Of course after someone has achieved success they put it down entirely to innate worth, effort, skill and so forth. Likewise plenty who have deserved success have been wiped out by unlucky timing of the dot com bust, credit crunch, fraud. Yes persistence pays, but however unpopular it might be around here, we are nearly all one or two rolls from disaster - be that business failure, major illness, or whatever, that ca…

I'm not that convinced about the hard work part, it strikes me it's a hangover from the protestant work ethic. If you can't achieve something in 40 hours a week why would adding another 20 make much difference. If anything it might make it more difficult.

I think I'd phrase it as you need work and luck.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#72

Post by homonculus1 »

balabaster wrote: post #37
chongli wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're already lucky if you have a couch to sit on. Plenty of people have no house, let alone couch to sit on. Who you are is substantially a matter of luck, too. Somebody who has two driven parents that spend enormous amounts of time and effort raising them is far more likely to be driven and competitive than a person whose parents lay around smoking weed all day.

What if one parent was never to be found and the other was always at work to ensure you had a roof over your head and as such you were frequently a feral kid? Your genetic makeup is a product of the genetic histories of two people that (perhaps, but not necessarily) fell in love and had a baby. If they were genetically predisposed to large amounts of self discipline, then perhaps you will be too, perhaps not. I'd say…

>I'd say this can count as lucky... or unlucky(?) beyond that, all you've got is your own toil, sweat, tears and guile.

No, luck does not end at birth.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#73

Post by vecinu »

nouveaux wrote: post #61
downandout wrote: post #43

One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that many CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that specific data point. As for the larger point of the article, I always frame this conversation in this way: if you wer…

"One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that many CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that specific data point." On the point of birth month, there is a cause. Kids born before the cutoff year for kindergart…

This is exactly what Malcom Gladwell talks about in Outliers: The Story of Success. He starts off by mentioning how hockey players have this age advantage since they are more physically mature than people born in other months and cut off by our artificially created system.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#74

Post by mv4 »

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #64

I attest to this. I have had a reasonable success in life (built and sold a few companies, have a financial cushion, a home, a small plane, etc.). I have done everything well and with diligence but when I look at the flow of my life, the financial success came primarily from luck. Being at the right place at the right time. Having a good idea at the right time. Knowing the right people at the right time. Having the r…

Luck plays a huge role.

However, it does help when one can recognize a rare opportunity, and can quickly act on it (take that meeting, show up at that event, say the right thing).

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#75

Post by elnygren »

mtgex wrote: post #17
elnygren wrote: post #2

You can only get lucky if you position yourself to be able to get lucky. In addition, you need that carpe diem attitude to exploit any lucky breaks. A business opportunity is not gonna magically appear if you are not constantly looking for one and you won’t be able to exploit it if you haven’t learned relevant skills and built a network.

You can't position yourself to be born a white male, which I believe affords the greatest advantages, and opens the most opportunities of any personal attribute you can have.

Being a white male is certainly not mandatory for becoming successful.

And a better personal ability would be to have supermodel genes :>

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#76

Post by tonyedgecombe »

tahw wrote: post #30

It isn't luck, it's money. Successful entrepreneurs aren't lucky or hard-working, they're just people who have enough cash to operate at a loss while they pursue an idea.

You could argue that's luck as well, lucky to have wealthy parents or contacts that can finance your business.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#77

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

mtgex wrote: post #52
antisthenes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop trying to make it a race and gender issue. It helps no one but the rentier class to further divide the people they are extracting profit from. What wealth 'class' you are born into has by far the biggest effect on your chance of success.

But it is a race and gender issue. I'm not trying to divide people, just stating facts. Attaining wealth is much easier if you're born into a specific race, thus your chances of being born wealthy are directly correlated with your chances of being white. Attaining wealth is much easier if you're male. Among the many reasons are increased career opportunities in general, less chance of a stalled career because of chil…

Having a black doctor for a parent probably provides more benefit than having a white dockworker for a parent. That's the point of the comment above. Similarly for being the daughter of rich couple or the son of a poor couple.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#78

Post by mtgex »

elnygren wrote: post #75
mtgex wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't position yourself to be born a white male, which I believe affords the greatest advantages, and opens the most opportunities of any personal attribute you can have.

Being a white male is certainly not mandatory for becoming successful. And a better personal ability would be to have supermodel genes :>

No it's not mandatory at all, just incredibly advantageous. Much more so than physical attractiveness, although that helps a great deal in life as well.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#79

Post by drb91 »

nouveaux wrote: post #61
downandout wrote: post #43

One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that many CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that specific data point. As for the larger point of the article, I always frame this conversation in this way: if you wer…

"One point of contention I have with this article is that it mentions that many CEOs were born during certain months and have names starting with certain letters. The mere mention of the phrase I am about to use always draws the ire of the HN crowd, but I see a big correlation/causation issue with that specific data point." On the point of birth month, there is a cause. Kids born before the cutoff year for kindergart…

> At that age, every month of development makes a big difference in social skills, which leads to more leadership opportunities.

Citation? This sounds suspiciously like Malcolm Gladwell, who is a pop psychologist hack and whose arguments hold water like a paper bag.

Re: The Role of Luck in Life Success

#80

Post by elnygren »

anonemouse145 wrote: post #15
elnygren wrote: post #2

You can only get lucky if you position yourself to be able to get lucky. In addition, you need that carpe diem attitude to exploit any lucky breaks. A business opportunity is not gonna magically appear if you are not constantly looking for one and you won’t be able to exploit it if you haven’t learned relevant skills and built a network.

How did you choose who your parents were going to be? What part of your carpe diem attitude helped your mom not do drugs and destroy your gestating brain before you were born? How did you bootstrap your country so that you weren't a victim of war or starvation at a young age? What part of your attitude ensured you were born into a modern society at the right time to be educated, instead of being a pre-agrarian human…

This doesn’t change what I said though does it?

I never implied that anyone could do those things.

The point was that you’re not automatically participating in the “get lucky to become successful” lottery.

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