Do You Need Luck to Succeed?

I’m sure you too have heard people dismissing successful people as just being lucky. People always remember to mention that Bill Gates was lucky to be born in the right family at the right time. But how many people born in the same conditions would have founded Microsoft and become one of the richest people in the world? I would have to guess practically none. But do we still need luck to succeed?

You can find many articles online that will tell you how success is mainly about luck or how people with a certain kind of name are more likely to succeed.

The problem with these articles is that they always come up with reasons for why someone successful had the odds in their favor, but they never provide any reasons for why someone who had the same goals didn’t succeed. You can explain everything that ever happened to anyone by saying that it happened because of the different factors that led to that situation. And of course, technically that is the truth.

But saying that Kamala Harris is the Vice President because she was lucky enough to be born American or Beyoncé was just lucky to have been born with a beautiful voice is not just insulting, it’s ridiculous. It’s like saying that the average Joe isn’t the president because they were unlucky and born in the wrong neighborhood.

I don’t think any of this makes much sense and if you want to level up your life, you can’t waste your time thinking about your background or blame your difficulties on luck. Let’s take a better look at what luck really is and what it takes for you to succeed and reach your goals.

What is luck really?

Luck generally speaking means that things work out in your favor seemingly without a reason. Either you were at the right place at the right time, or you just happened to grow up with the right person or live on the right street.

That’s what people think luck is. But in reality, what we call luck might actually be your ability to see an opportunity where others wouldn’t see it or having the energy and zeal to keep trying even when the odds are not in your favor.

Luck definitely doesn’t come knocking on your door if you just sit at home waiting for things to magically happen. No one got their dream job without trying or got invited to amazing events without making the effort to get to know people first. That already proves that you can’t count on luck to make someone successful.

Is success based on luck or hard work?

It goes without saying that success is never based on one single factor. You can work hard in a minimum-wage job and always struggle with money. You can be great at playing the piano but never become a famous pianist. Maybe you’ve studied really hard in school, and you still don’t get into Harvard.

What might be the reason for this kind of misfortune? Is it a lack of luck? Or maybe something else?

Well, let’s see. To become well off, you have to choose a career that pays well or you have to start your own business. I know people who have chosen a career that doesn’t pay well and then they complain about their low salary for years. But we already know that nurses and primary school teachers don’t get paid much, so you should only choose these jobs if you genuinely want to do that kind of work.

And we know that universities don’t only care about your grades, so it’s no wonder that your GPA or SAT scores alone won’t get you into Harvard.

Last but not least, success isn’t just about having one specific skill. You can be great at playing the piano, but are you also good at making connections, promoting your work, and finding opportunities?

If you just study hard or play the piano every day, it’s no use waiting for luck. You need to figure out what are all the things that you need to do to reach your specific goal and then put in the work. In other words, success isn’t based on just luck or just hard work. You need the whole package.

Are successful people just lucky?

We have a tendency to call talented and hardworking people simply lucky as if their efforts and skills didn’t matter. Of course, it’s impossible for some people to become famous actors, and not everyone can be the richest person in the world. Being born in a poor country or having a difficult disability can reduce your chances to zero, which obviously is sad and much should be done about that. But it doesn’t make any sense to constantly compare yourself to the worst off people in the world.

When people say that Bill Gates was lucky, they don’t compare him to the whole of humankind, but simply to other Americans who were born around the same time and had a theoretical chance of achieving the same. Thus you shouldn’t compare yourself to people in a completely different situation either.

And anyway, we were all lucky to be born. Does that invalidate everything anyone has ever achieved? Hardly.

Mostly people fail because they don’t try enough or because they lack something, whether it’s interest, skills, confidence, time, or understanding of their own field. People who want to be successful have to be smart about their actions.

Is luck necessary for success?

We’ve already come to the conclusion that there are many factors at play when it comes to success. No one thing alone will take you all the way to the end. But do you still need luck to succeed?

In case your goals are relatively normal and your definition of success isn’t measured in billions, you for sure don’t need to worry about luck. Getting your dream job or moving to your dream country aren’t crazy dreams. Many people do those things and you can do them too.

If your goal is to start the next Microsoft, well, then you might want to frequent those right places at the right time. But never forget the importance of perseverance, confidence, constant learning, and the importance of always trying again after failing.

How can you increase your chances of being lucky

If you want to call getting great opportunities luck, you’d better also make sure that you will find said luck. As I already said, luck is merely when things work in your favor. That can be having the right friends or finding your way to the right event.

How do you find these opportunities? By working on your goals and trying new things. If you want to find interesting people that might help you in your career, you have to go to networking events, reach out to people online, make sure that you are seen and heard, and make people want to introduce you to other people they know.

Maybe none of the networking events you go to will ever be helpful, but going to a random workshop on a day when you felt like staying at home might lead you to meeting your future boss or someone who is interested in investing in your business. You never know. This can only happen if you put in the effort for these things to even be possible.

Related post: I Was in a Private Members’ Club for a Year – Here’s My Experience

What should you focus on to succeed

I know you want to succeed, but how does one make it happen? Unfortunately, there hardly is one answer to this, since we all have different goals. But to increase your chances of making all your dreams come true, there are a few things you definitely should do.

First of all, don’t think about luck. Focus on action. You have to know what exactly you want to achieve to be able to know what you should do. Make an effort to connect with new people and to find people you can learn from, even if you can’t actually meet them. Many successful people have written books that can be really useful.

Also, take risks. Sometimes you just have to take a chance even if you don’t know whether it will work out or not. It’s also important that you always keep learning and perfecting your work. Make sure to analyze the work you do and the progress you make. If there is anything that you know deep down you should do differently, change it immediately.

Conclusion

If you want to get those incredible opportunities that you dream about, you have to work to make them possible. You have to keep learning, keep trying, keep meeting new people and trying new things, and one day wonderful things can start happening. Not because of luck, but because you made it happen.

Always believe in yourself and never let people tell you that your achievements were just based on luck. You wouldn’t be where you are now without your skills and perseverance. And you won’t get where you want to be if you don’t keep working and taking chances.

Let me know what you think about luck and how important it is for success. I’d love to hear your insights. Remember to also share this post!

For some extra motivation on your road to a better future, you might want to read this article next: 10 Reasons Why Done is Better Than Perfect