People also confuse opportunity with fortune and the lack of either is a personal fault 🙄

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Success = opportunity + talent Luck = multiple opportunities The more opportunities you have, the higher the chance you'll find one that fits your talent. Rich people can afford endless opportunities, while poor people live or die on single chances.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"All a man needed was a chance. They were always trying to control who got a chance in this world" - Charles bukowski, ham on rye

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Damn that book is such an enjoyable read

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Luck= opportunity + preparation There was a a debate going on about whether you would have dinner with Jay Z or take 500 grand. Some people seem to think that dinner with Jay Z would be way more valuable. Like there was some magic pearls of wisdom to becoming super rich. There is no secret to success. The only thing necessary is consistency. That it is it. The reason why everyone isn't rich or successful (apart from those born into wealth of course) is that the vast majority of people simply are not consistent in their endeavours. Everyone has larger than life aspirations. They wanna be a writer, an actor, an rapper, a singer etc. but only small minority actually have the consistency and patience to achieve those dreams. Jay Z would sit and tell you the exact same thing. At least you'll have a lovely dinner

by Anonymous 2 years ago

To those people: the reason you aren't rich isn't because you haven't had dinner with Jay-Z and a chance to pick his brain. It's because you're the type of dumbass to choose dinner with Jay-Z over $500K. Jay-Z would tell you to take the money. You don't need his infinite wisdom, you need to not be a dumbass when the opportunity arises

by Anonymous 2 years ago

People take the "teach a man to fish" quote way too seriously.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Relentless consistency, amplified by talent is usually the actual equation while waiting for luck/opportunity to present a moment.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I learned this one the hard way when I was younger - was getting into film stuff and there was a stretch where I was finding myself opening a lot of professional doors too quickly but was too young to know how to handle it. Managed to grab a coffee with a head of production at a production company who wanted to "hear more about my ideas" - and I was dumb enough to think he literally meant he wanted to hear me talk about them and then a checkbook would come out or something. What it actually meant was I needed to be prepared for the luck/opportunity moment... meaning in this case that I should have had a finished script or proof of concept ready to forward from my phone right then and there before I even asked him. Instead the opportunity fizzled. Luckily the worst I did was come off as a naive kid and I later learned those jobs are basically musical chairs, but now I only ever talk about a project or ask for help when I've already finished the thing as much as I possibly can. I still get no's but at least they're informed no's now.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If it makes you feel better, the producer's relentless consistency is repeatedly having conversations like that knowing that 90% of the time it's going to be a naive kid

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Keep going! It'll come back around again.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Thanks, yeah. I'm much better at cultivating actual relationships with people now and working towards opportunities (as opposed to just hoping the opportunities find me).

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Half the work right there.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Precisely. One caveat to add is that hard work pays off way more than natural talent for sure. Plays into the consistency part.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Oh my god just wait til I tell all the people starving in North Korea that all they need to be as successful as Jay Z is to be consistent in their endeavors.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That's not what I meant. You are purposely misunderstanding me. I'm taking about successful pursuits not basic needs for living. Starting a business, getting into acting, starting a band. I'm assuming that's what OP meant by good fortune. As in being successful at these things. Being able to afford to live isn't good fortune. That's just standard human rights. Two different things.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It doesn't matter how consistent you are there is an extremely good chance that you will fail at starting a business, acting, or playing in a band. A lot of people who try to find success grind away and never find the success they're looking for. This idea that if everybody just put the work in they could be successful is a fantasy. There's a lot of people who put the work in and became successful, but that doesn't mean that everyone who follows their example will too. It does kind of just come back to luck (aka what opportunities are available to you). Where were you born? Where did you go to school? What do your parents do? Can you develop the skills/abilities/capability necessary to capitalize on your specific life circumstances? Opportunity generally comes from circumstances that we have little to no control over. Skill and hard work can only get you so far without opportunity.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Thank you sane person

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." Stephen J. Gould

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You create opportunities through hard work, that's probably one of the most important parts... They don't just fall in your lap, you gotta seek them out and be willing to take them. I missed so many in hindsight, and it wasn't 'bad luck' or 'lack of money'.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I work in finance. Every single person in the front office (investments) comes from money. Every one. Many of them know each other from family connections. Every person in operations and the back office comes from a working class background. Back office and operations are doing fine. Front office are all super rich. The people in the front office didn't work harder to get there, they all got internships and opportunities based on family friends and recommendations.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Every place I've ever worked there were people who worked harder than I did who made less money and people who made way more doing practically nothing. People are in here talking like Kim Kardashian is just really good at designing handbags.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

sounds like you didn't yank on them there bootstraps hard enough feller

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Fer sure didn't

by Anonymous 2 years ago

People are incredibly results-oriented and blind to survivorship bias. Practically speaking, focusing on process is much more effective than focusing on results. Results won't always be guaranteed.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If a rich person ever tells you that they worked hard for their success, ask them if they think they worked harder than the combined efforts of 20 janitors or fast food employees.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That always bugs me, too. Bill Gates' annual income is about 6,600 times greater than mine; I know that he works damn hard, but I don't believe it's possible for one person to work 6,600 times harder than another unless the other guy's in a coma.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Tbf he is pretty open about the opportunities he had

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"I take on a lot more *risk*"

by Anonymous 2 years ago

People also mistake hard work for talent, and bad fortune for laziness

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yup. Talent is a natural aptitude. Being very good at something *can* be partially due to talent, but is more likely to be either mostly or entirely due to hard work and persistence.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

^ The difference between talent and skill. Talent is given, skill is earned.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I've seen so many people outright deny the existence of talent and/or refuse the difference between talent and skill.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Well, I mean those people are really really dumb. Just look at athletes. Michael Jordan is a more naturally talented basketball player than the 6'6 stiff we went to high school with lol No amount of persistence and practice can get you to that level

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Oh indeed, its that thing that people refuse to admit "some people are made better than others" for certain things. Michael Phelps is just DESIGNED so much better for swimming than most other people.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yep. Every Olympic athlete has the same drive and spends just as much time practising as Phelps does. The guys just perfectly evolved for swimming.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Also talent doesn't mean anything unless people take notice of it. I've seen tons of talented people who make podcasts, or art, or produce something, and they go completely ignored their whole lives. There are Einsteins and Picassos out there who will never have their talent recognized and will live in obscurity and squalor their entire lives. People like to think we all have control over our own lives and destiny, that if you just wish hard enough, try hard enough, want it badly enough you'll get it. I'm sure there are lots of children dying of brain cancer who "wish" they could not be dead. But they'll be getting buried in the ground in a week no matter how positive their mindset or how talented they might be. Life isn't fair, hard work or talent doesn't always pay off. People who live the best absolute lives often get to do so without having earned it. That's just life.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It always frustrates me a bit when I'm out playing music and people want to talk about how talented I am. Nah, I've just invested more hours into doing it than I could begin to count. I take the compliment but quite a few people really underestimate their potential.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I understand. I'm a tattooer and people remark on my "talent" a lot and in some cases I do speak up and say that I feel it's more skill over talent on my part. "Talent" feels invalidating towards the years of work put into honing a craft.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I have a friend whose been a music teacher for 20 years and is an amazing multi-instrumentalist. He's the first to humbly dismiss his talent as just lots of practise. That said he's also told me he's had students that he knows damn well are never going to get it. Practise is absolutely vital and completely underappreciated but its still only going to get you so far.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

There are also those that mistake laziness for bad fortune and blame everything on everybody else.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Lol you're literally the type of person they're talking about.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It's concerning how socially acceptable its getting to literally not accept responsibility for anything

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This is what the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell is about. It is a very interesting read.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Very enlightening book! My husband used to believe in "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" but after we read a few chapters together he realized how much of it is luck and winning the birth lottery!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That's sad. There's nothing that better correlates to success than effort and ability. Everyone can have good or bad luck or a good or bad starting position, but everyone can do better by working harder. To write success off to luck is detrimental to one's own future prospects and also to society.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Right wing talking points are always so funny to me. It's just so outlandish to believe that everyone has the same opportunities regardless of starting position. And not all success is based on extreme luck, but grandiose successes are 99% luck and at most 1% hard work/persistence.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

might be more comfortable for some people to think that they have agency over their lives- it can be tough to admit that a lot of things are out of our control

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Isn't interesting just how much we need to feel control? I mean, even those without a need for personal control might just ascribe everything to their deity of choice. I've met very few folks who are truly relaxed and able to take life as it comes; even reflecting on myself it's a bit embarrassing.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I've noticed that people who like to delude themselves into thinking they have full control over their lives rarely enjoy the company of cats.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That sounds like something Terry Pratchett would have said :)

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I am not technically an outlier here, having no delusion that I'm in control (or at least I hope I'm not, too much responsibility) yet also disliking the company of cats.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It's not like they said the only people who dislike cats are deluded into thinking they have control over their lives.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It goes the other way too though, a lot of people like to pretend it's all chance rather than own their own mistakes or lack of effort. In general it would be hetter if we just didn't make assumptions about how people got where they were- make the judgement once you know enough to actually make it informed rather than just assuming someone is either inept and unmotivated and doing poorly as a result or a lucky incompetent doing well by no virtue of their own capability. Luck is undeniably and a huge factor, but hard work and talent are as well. Anyone trying to distill success down to just one of those is motivated more by by ulterior motives in regards to shaping public perception than reality.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Internal vs external loci of control

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'd say most people like to attribute others success to luck, so they don't have to acknowledge their own short comings. Luck is definitely real, but treating it as real will almost never help you with being successful.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

A lot of people generally prefer to associate good results with their own actions and bad results with stuff outside of their control.

by Anonymous 2 years ago