Why Success is really more Luck than Hard Work

All of us are brought up with the belief that working hard will equal success. In school we’re taught that if we study harder, we’ll get better grades. In sports if we practice more, we’ll perform better and at work if we work harder, we will be more successful. I too grew up with that belief but of late I have begun to change my mind.

Talent, hard work and perseverance are all necessary but not a sufficient condition to succeed in life.

1 ) Bill Gates was lucky to be born into a well-to-do family. His mother’s social connection with IBM’s chairman enabled him to gain a contract from the then-leading PC company that was crucial for establishing his software empire. 2) Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, tried to sell their company for $1 million back in the 90s to Excite.com. Luckily, the deal did not happen. 3) A young Sachin Tendulkar wanted to be a fast bowler. But when he visited the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, Aussie legend Dennis Lillee advised Sachin to focus on his batting instead. What if the meeting with Lillee did not take place? Or Sachin had chosen to disregard the advice anyways? 4) Amitabh Bachchan wished to become a radio presenter but was repeatedly rejected by All India Radio (AIR). What if Mr. Bachchan had passed the AIR test and made a career in radio instead of movies?

No one can deny that all the above individuals put in a great amount of hard work to achieve professional success in their respective careers. But as we can see, luck too played a key part.

Supporting Research

In recent years, a number of studies have suggested that luck and opportunity play a far greater role than we ever realized.

• Gregory Clark, an economics professor used uncommon surnames to match up the wealth of parents and that of their offspring in several countries around the world over 800 years. He discovered that “the rich beget the rich, the poor beget the poor.” This is not just about transfer of wealth. It is as much about gifts of healthy genes, confidence, education, and connections that comes with being lucky enough to be born into a well-to-do family.

Clark confirms that where you start has a lot to do with where you end up.

• How about the role that luck plays in career success? Three Italian professors created a model to track the success of 1,000 individuals over a series of lucky and unlucky events spanning 40-year careers. The result?

They found that almost never do the most talented people reach the highest peaks of success. They are overtaken by mediocre but luckier individuals.

• In his best seller, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell reports that a disproportionate number of professional hockey players owe their success to the accident of having been born in January, which made them the oldest, most experienced players in every youth league growing up. For that reason alone, they were more likely to make all-star teams, receive special coaching and eventually become professionals.
• Ask any Founder or CEO of a company why their company is doing well, and they’ll typically credit a brilliant strategy coupled with diligent execution. Is that the ground reality? Estimates of CEOs’ contribution to companies’ success vary, but one study found that it varies between 2% to 22% depending on the industry.

Industry and macroeconomic factors tended to matter more for success of the company - factors over which the CEO had no control

Summary

A lot of people work hard but not all of them are successful. How do you explain that if hard work = success? From Warren Buffett, who says he won the “Ovarian Lottery,” to the venture capitalist Fred Wilson, a lot of smart, industrious and hard-working people admit that luck played a role in their success. However, most of us dismiss luck. Many of us, in fact, seem to be scared to give luck any credit because we feel doing so devalues our talent or hard work. By recognizing the role luck has played in our lives, we can go forward with just a little more humility and a little less ego. And that is a great investment for long-term success.

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Thanks for reading. All views are personal.

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