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?? what does him going to the party knowing that Horowitz will be there has to do with luck??
Luck is commonly referred to as being ready when an opportunity presents itself.
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On the other hand, there are plenty of people with determination and focus who aren't successful in the Instagram sense of walking away with $100M+ after 2 years of work.
still, you can be successful without making millions.
I am in no way agreeing or disagreeing with this notion of "success", just stating how I think society in general broadly feels.
This just goes to show that the most critical ingredient to success is determination and focus, not any specific training. If you are committed to a goal, picking up any specific hands-on skills (coding included) is just the matter of sticking to it. Something to keep in mind when hiring.
I truly believe that talent helps but it doesn't take you as far as determination, focus, passion and ambition. If you want it badly enough you will make it.
That's nice to think. Hell, I wish I had your tenacious optimisim, but you'd have to be willfully avoiding reality to truly believe this is always the case. Sadly, it just is not.
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He just went to a party. He didn't have rolodex of investors or anything.
He went to a party where Andreessen Horowitz happened to also be attending. I'm assuming he didn't crash this party. I didn't say he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, just that he was in a position where his hard work was likely to be recognized.
As quite a few people have pointed out here going to Stanford in any capacity and graduating gives you a huge leg up in terms of the potential Alumni you can now reach out to.
Right place/Right Time/Right Product is what this boils down to. I am also assuming that he did not write most of what is the current Instagram code. Funny that no one mentions that Mike Krieger as his Cofounder in addition to the other engineers on the team.
I would like to believe that his skill at coding had less to do with it versus the connections he had and the people he surrounded himself with. As quite a few people have pointed out here going to Stanford in any capacity and graduating gives you a huge leg up in terms of the potential Alumni you can now reach out to. Right place/Right Time/Right Product is what this boils down to. I am also assuming that he did not…
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Absolutely.Determination , hard work and commitment.This is what college taught, it doesn't matter how smart you are , if you don't work hard . It will all go waste.
unfortunately its only half true. i know bunch of people that were lazy like a beach bum and got rich whether because of work of other people or because of luck. the sad truth is, that there are no set in stone rules how to become successful. perhaps its good, because otherwise if everyone would get successful, nobody would be successful. think it this way: imagine solid set of rules how to hit jackpot in lotto. if e…
What's so hard to believe about that? Are there any programmers who aren't self taught these days . . .
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Luck is commonly referred to as being ready when an opportunity presents itself.
Many people here on HN mistake it for winning the lottery. Almost as if that is the only reason you can and did succeed.
Luck, or what appears to be luck, generally happens to people who are constantly prepared to accept an opportunity when it presents itself. In fact this leads to another popular saying that opportunity is everywhere. The problem is that it is often dressed in overalls and looks like work[1].
[1] Very liberal paraphrase of Edisons quote.
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I truly believe that talent helps but it doesn't take you as far as determination, focus, passion and ambition. If you want it badly enough you will make it.
> If you want it badly enough you will make it. That's nice to think. Hell, I wish I had your tenacious optimisim, but you'd have to be willfully avoiding reality to truly believe this is always the case. Sadly, it just is not.