Success: Luck or Hard Work?

[Ashleyxoxo]

I’m not talking about a modicum of success. I’m talking about an R&B artist getting a number one hit, becoming a millionaire overnight. Is it luck? Or is it hard work?

[Doctor Amadeus]

Usually Neither. Sometimes both.

[Gestopft]

Usually some of both.

[Cosmic Janitor]

4:1 ~ 3:2

/10char

[Boricha]

A mixture of both depending on context.

[Stormdash]

Some of Column A, some of Colum B. Look, anyone that's telling you that success has nothing to do with hard work is lying to you and trying to justify some character flaws. The worst one can say but also likely the wisest is that old axe is that "success is where preparation meet opportunity"

[Raeph]

I’m not talking about a modicum of success. I’m talking about an R&B artist getting a number one hit, becoming a millionaire overnight. Is it luck? Or is it hard work?

Yes.

Luck - The parents you were born to, live in an area with social networks that you can leverage to reach a certain level of success, which is usually restricted based on the resources within that network.

Hard Work - You as an individual have to be the one that chooses to leverage the resources available to you within that social network to your highest benefit.

A foolish trust fund kid will be stuck if the stock market crashes and his families trust fund dries up, without him learning to leverage his social network. Conversely a smart kid from a poverty ridden urban slum can leverage his social network to gain an education, job prospects or business opportunities that can improve his life.

[Stelio Kontos]

You need some of both.

Anyone saying it's only hard work is being disingenuous about some ugly truths of the world, and anyone saying it's only up to luck just blames everyone else for their lack of success.

[Felya]

Luck has a ceiling...

[Jonnusthegreat]

Luck has a ceiling...

And the ceiling is somewhere between North and X AE A-12

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You need some of both.

Anyone saying it's only hard work is being disingenuous about some ugly truths of the world, and anyone saying it's only up to luck just blames everyone else for their lack of success.

Pretty good summary.

[Zeth Hawkins]

Hard work - being a good artist

Luck - who you know

Both

[Flutterguy]

50% luck, 50% making the right choices.

[Magical Mudcrab]

A lot of people have and are going to continue to say both, but they're simply wrong. Overnight sensations (such as your example) are people who simply had the fortune of being noticed or sometimes having gone viral. They didn't get there because of the grind, they didn't get there because they worked hard and did their best, they got there because someone on a completely different part of the planet decided to share your music with the right person. Whether this was their first song or hundredth, that don't bear on whether you will become viral and get the opportunities that come with the recognition.

Even if we're talking about some of the most successful people in the world, you're typically going to be talking about luck as well.
The Waltons, who own Walmart, became successful because they took a gamble and adopted barcode and RFID technology early to improve supply chains, when other bands didn't. They basically were lucky that their competitors didn't adopt as well.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became wealthy because they were lucky enough to have grown up during the infancy of computing, when it was its most rudimentary, and had the fortune of having more technically competent friends, Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak, respectively.
Facebook became successful only because MySpace was unable to meet the demands of users; it was lucky to be the first real social network to market.
The list, especially in tech, goes on.

Your familial wealth, how supportive they are, the connections you make growing up, the temperament you develop, your intelligence, etc., basically every metric you would use to figure out someones likelihood of success is going to come down to luck.

[Egomaniac]

Success often comes down to "right time, right place"

[Temp name]

Luck with some skill.

You'll need luck to have a large enough / the right audience to become successful
But you also need to have a baseline of skill so that that audience want to fund/spread what you did.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became wealthy because they were lucky enough to have grown up during the infancy of computing, when it was its most rudimentary, and had the fortune of having more technically competent friends, Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak, respectively.
Facebook became successful only because MySpace was unable to meet the demands of users; it was lucky to be the first real social network to market.

And they were skilled enough (ie, hard work) to be able to take advantage of the situation they were in. If you put joe-schmoe from bum-fuck Vietnam in those same situations they'd likely not have done as well.
Luck is the predominant factor, but you need to be able to back up the luck with some skill

[Logwyn]

I’m not talking about a modicum of success. I’m talking about an R&B artist getting a number one hit, becoming a millionaire overnight. Is it luck? Or is it hard work?

What shows like The Voice, American Idol, XYZCountries Got Talent, X-Factor, etc is that those on the top of the charts and such are not as unique and special as they once were. There are tons of people that can sing, dance, rap, etc.

So becoming a millionaire is luck knowing the connections to get the major record deal. Then hard work staying there.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

Depends on the medium when it comes to acting a combination of both but something like coding... I'd say skill outside of an economy down turn. When you look at toby fox you can see why his game was a hit. When you look at mark zuckerberg you can see why facebook was a hit. They just made good products that people need at the time.

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Success often comes down to "right time, right place"

I think it depends on the medium stuff like engineering or coding aren't as luck driven.

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[Adamas102]

Hard work is part of it, but it's mostly luck. Often times it's just a matter of having the right connections.

[Egomaniac]

I think it depends on the medium stuff like engineering or coding aren't as luck driven.

The coding itself may not be...but the app or whatever that is being coded can absolutely be.

[PokeKitty]

Quite a bit of both, even if you have all the hard work, but if you don't have any right connections, opportunities you still fall behind.