The ugly truth of the successful is that luck was the single most important ingredient to their success. The idea that hard work equals success is a myth, even the term is suspect. Saying hard work is like saying wet water. So why do we persist in this fantasy? Fear of the reality, all things are a matter of luck.
Fear of not having complete control of our lives.
The implications to an economy or country where a person can become homeless NOT because of laziness, but because they are unlucky is huge. One might go as far as saying world changing. So what is this mysterious thing that is with us always? What is Luck?
Luck, Lucky, luckiest
In a nutshell, luck israndomness and the lack of control there of. This is why luck is so hated and loved when it comes to American social (economic) policy. I would argue that for modern American ideology; the fashion of the day, which cannot and will not accept the power that luck plays in one’s success and more particularly ones failure, the fear that success is also a matter of luck is the monster we fear.
This monster is unthinkable because control equals; safe, peace, calm, home, hearth, mother? Luck is a lack of control which makes us the monsters prey. To Americans, the concept of luck vs hard work is a monster movie called The Dice of Doom.
Ask successful people how they “did it” and if they say it was “luck”; we pat them on the back and say, “you’re just being modest”. Ask the same question of someone who is poor for example; and it they say it was bad luck then we, as a society, scorn them for not “working” hard.
The unspoken logic goes like this:
a. You do not want to succeed!
b. If you work hard you WILL succeed therefore you did not work hard.
c. You did not work hard because you are lazy and like being, poor, cold, hungry, sick, beaten, robbed and called a “looser”.
d. Since luck is not a factor and hard work will get you success, you do not want to succeed!
e. Conclusion: you are a bad person who does not want to succeed. (Work Hard) You are lazy!
Now Back to Reality
A quick glimpse around you would reveal something so obvious that even a blind man could see it; every sane person wants the privileges and comforts of a “successful” life. Of course luck is constantly at play in everything we do; otherwise the world would be filled with gazillionairs and/or Lady Gagas. Q.E.D.
Your station in life does not indicate how hard you work, only how lucky you have been. The only thing hard work buys you in life, is self-respect and a lottery ticket. Success is determined by the lottery ticket. That’s not a bad or good thing, it’s just life.
In fact, I propose that this reality of life is, liberation. You can create and build without fear of being judged a “looser”, because all that means now-a-days is that you are not rich. You’re hard work only buys you one of life’s lottery ticket, however being rich or poor is just a matter of luck. Just a matter of how The Dice of Doom decides to treat you.
Just try to be good at what you do, for the sake of being good at what you do. That is the surest path to contentment, self-respect and happiness, and besides…it’s a lot less stressful.
~from the easel of
Julian Greigh
David A Nelson
You are insane. People make their luck through hard work.
Julian Greigh
You lost your point—if at any point you actually had one—with your poor use of the word insane. And by the way, did you bother to look up the word luck? If you had—or read my article with something approaching an open mind—then you would know that if you could “make” luck, THEN it would not be luck. Q.E.D.
DEFINITION: (Luck) is success or failure brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions.
Come on old boy, your not even trying. Up your game please.