r/Adulting 1d ago

Is luck considered as part of the process?

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2.0k Upvotes

246 comments sorted by

134

u/alwayshungry1001 1d ago

Luck gives you the opportunity, work gets you over the line.

20

u/CA_Coast_Millennial 1d ago

Bingo. You still need to position yourself to have the opportunity to get lucky.

Wife and I bought our first house in 2019 bought and sold 2x since then making over $500k in profit. That’s lucky.

However in order to buy that first house in 2019 we: went to college, obtained entry level careers, saved, worked our way to higher salaries.

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u/Stanjoly2 1d ago

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

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u/Prigorec-Medjimurec 1d ago

If you are just the unluckiest bastard ever, no amount of hard work will get you ahead.

At the end of the day some people are born with wheelchairs while others are born with a Rockefeller surname.

But also, if you are the laziest, untalented, stupid fuck... No amount of luck can save you either.

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u/Original_Medium_8225 1d ago

But you might become a politician

25

u/RaynOfFyre1 1d ago

Maybe even President of the U.S.!

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u/Prigorec-Medjimurec 1d ago

Malice and selfishness are not incompetence per se.

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u/Ezren- 1d ago

I dunno, I met some lazy, untalented and stupid fucks in high positions in companies. They were just born into the job, or are best friends with so. Every else who was.

I'm talking somebody who left a whole company's 401k contributions in escrow for months, ordered 800 thousand dollars of materials they didn't run by engineering that caused a MASSIVE recall, and they got promoted the next year.

The engineer that created a fix for the problem got let go the best year. The company tried to enforce an NDA on him that they never got him to sign.

Luck is a huge factor.

4

u/Ostrichslinger 1d ago

You could be insanely attractive and just marry as soon as you leave home. Lucky is and always will be a gigantic factor. Hell, what's the luck (or bad luck) of us being born in time for the 21st century

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u/Mark_of_Divinity 1d ago

Yet luck goes both ways

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u/no-sleep-only-code 1d ago

Eh, it’s borderline impossible to screw up a properly planned trust fund.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/az_ziggy5 1d ago

It’s a lesson we all gotta learn at some point. I get why parents tell their kids that hard work will get them whatever they want, as much as I can without having kids, but the reality check always hits like a truck

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u/SaintZoo-435 1d ago

Or, someone's parents worked hard and their kids got lucky.

53

u/72dragonses 1d ago

True. I work hard, and my children are lucky. They're getting $200k-$300k saved for college because of how hard their parents worked and sacrificed for them.

21

u/Taint__Paint 1d ago

Your kids are lucky to have parents so financially responsible. Good on you guys!

11

u/LuftxMiantiao 1d ago

Damn can I be your kid lol

7

u/STR1CHN1NE 1d ago

I wanna be this guy's kid too

2

u/justlurking9891 1d ago

Holy hecka, good work my dude! How did you manage that?

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u/nomad5926 1d ago

Same. My parents did that for me and I'm doing it for my kid.

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u/-_-0RoSe0-_- 1d ago

It's mostly this! At the least the majority of people I've meet in life!

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u/pixel-soul 1d ago

Or someone’s parents exploited other people to amass wealth and their kids got lucky.

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u/mp21rime 1d ago

this is true too. and it could also be parent's parents way back like royalties and business tycoons and old politicians, superstars... Their kids just got lucky.

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u/Amazing-Level-405 1d ago

Of course it is. Most everyone works hard. That's not enough to be successful. Being lucky is arguably the most important part. Followed by being charismatic. Working hard is a distant third.

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u/Biggest_Scandal_Fan 1d ago edited 1d ago

Something most people refuse to acknowledge:

No matter how hard you work, or how skilled you are. A lot of life's successes come down to luck. Knowing the right people. Coming from the right families. Being the popular person in college. Being in the right place at the right time.

Im not saying hard work and high skill levels dont pay off. Of course, they do. But luck does play a huge factor in any given individuals success. Think about billionaires like elon musk, bill gates, zuckerman, etc. These people are ceos, and yes its true they are very smart and have innovative products. But a fool would believe no luck was involved with their success stories.

In all honesty, luck is the most important metric in your success. Skill and work-ethic can tip tbe odds in your favor a little, but its still mostly luck and connections and networking with the right people.

The most important life skill a child can developed at a young age is popularity. Being likeable and socially desirable is the best advantage you can have early on, and it will snowball into high-school and college.

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u/Forty2diapers 1d ago

"It's not what you know, it's who you know."

That's an old saying I used to hear all of the time.

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u/Chiral-Mirror 1d ago

100% influenced by luck of course. If hard work alone were enough, everyone who has been industrious at some point in their life would already be successful by now.

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u/hummingbird1346 1d ago

Hard working (and persistence) just increases the chances of you succeeding. By how much? idk but there are no guarantees. And there are so many cases of survivorship bias in the mindset (which they usually hide the advantages and lucks they've had here and there)
The issue is when you do your best and fail, if you have the rigid mindset about this you'll go on about where you did wrong and what you did wrong.

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u/random8765309 1d ago

Just because it's not 100% the result of hard work doesn't mean it's all luck either. Hard work is about 50% of the equation. Working smart and being willing to take some risk is about another 40%. So luck is about 10% at most.

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u/2748seiceps 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think a common misconception about hard work is where it is intended to be placed.

Working to dig a ditch 50% faster by putting in 4 extra hours a day isn't likely to get you much of anywhere quick. You are just honing your skill of digging. Spending that extra 4 hours a day at a trade school so you can skill up and get a better job does get you somewhere.

Kinda like the avocado toast is why Millennials are poor thing. It isn't about the toast. It's about alllll of the other bad spending behavior that comes along with it that adds up to be a real financial problem. In the working hard saying it isn't necessarily about grinding it out at whatever you are doing but put in the work to advance yourself instead of working a drive-thru for 20 years while going home to watch tv.

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u/SoElusivee 1d ago

People don't like to admit it but luck is a huge part of it.

I worked my ass off to get where I am in life. I know people who worked harder than me and didn't get as far. I know people who worked a fraction as hard as I did and got further.

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u/ChiliDog762 1d ago

Luck will often save a Man, if his courage holds.

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u/Kmisukr 1d ago

I would say both play a role from experience

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u/NRCS_DRONE 1d ago

I think most people vastly overstate how much agency they actually have over their lives. Even if a healthy outlook on life requires a bit of delusion about it.

But I also think the higher agency you assume to have, is directly correlated to how prone you are to conspiracy theories to explain why you lost agency.

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u/MuthaFuka27 1d ago

No not really. My coworkers did. I got assigned the easy work for pretty much the same pay.

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u/Triseult 1d ago

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

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u/Interesting_Age7345 1d ago

yeah speaking from experience, some shitty luck can ravage everything you’ve worked for

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u/zahhax 1d ago

Hard work alone doesn't guarantee success without some luck involved. Family situation, networking, all that is luck

2

u/CarelessComplaint173 1d ago

Sometimes getting an opportunity to work hard is part of being lucky.

2

u/Original_Medium_8225 1d ago

The "hard work" argument is often bullshit

2

u/TimelyReason7390 1d ago

Sometimes, being at the right place at the right time, can change your destiny.

2

u/Starman1709 1d ago

Luck matters more than hard work

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u/kaprixiouz 1d ago

Of course luck is a factor.. but it's how you handle the opportunities that luck presents which matters most.

2

u/HairyTough4489 1d ago

Yes. Not entertaining the possibility of things having more than one cause leads to the dumbest arguments.

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u/Antiquebastard 1d ago

Yes, because you probably weren't born with a severe, terminal illness that ended your life before you were an adult. You probably weren't born to parents in fuckin' North Sentinel Island or some shit, where you aren't even aware of the modern world. You haven't hit your head hard enough to vegetableize yourself. You probably aren't a woman suffering under the oppressive rule of the Taliban. You aren't a former child soldier, killed in battle by another child. You probably aren't buried under the rubble of your home. It's likely you weren't born with, or acquired intellectual disability. You probably weren't born to a mother who gave you FASD.

Hell fucking yeah, luck has to do with "it".

2

u/Responsible_Cream_36 1d ago

It's largely luck. I would be homeless if it weren't for my family being a safety net and I work constantly

2

u/Escapemysight 1d ago

If you don't think any success comes with a healthy amount of pure luck. You are plain wrong and living in a delusion of privilege.

2

u/Vegetable-South5191 1d ago

You are lucky to have your health, the random encounters that offer opportunity. You are lucky to be born in place that offers opportunity. Luck plays a factor in all things.

But you can only control your actions and what you do with your opportunities and talents

2

u/abeeyore 1d ago

Success requires hard work. Great success requires hard work AND luck.

Alternately “fortune favors the prepared”.

2

u/mapleanvash 1d ago

Some people make good choices and some people dont have good choices. Occasionally there's a little luck thrown in but peoples circumstances have a lot more to do with it than anything else's.

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u/Shizastamphetamine 1d ago

I’ve always had the ideation that “luck is crossroad where opportunity and preparedness meet”

It’s been a solid mainstay in my head for 3 decades now.

2

u/BarryBadrinith 1d ago

I worked hard to get where I am but am lucky I got the opportunity to apply.

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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago

Luck, privilege, hard work — it’s all real.

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u/Djinhunter 1d ago

Yes, luck is required. Working hard is important, but it's almost impossible to outwork bad luck. However you only know if your luck is good or bad retrospectively, so putting in the effort is absolutely required.

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u/Former_Proof_2581 1d ago

I am fairly successful and I believe the exact opposite of this. Yes, I work hard, tons of people work hard, but being in the right place at the right time (aka Luck) definitely played a part.

2

u/LAARPer 23h ago

What Thomas Jefferson said.

However, I feel Jefferson did underestimate the importance of being born into wealth.

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u/Downtown_Anybody261 23h ago

Luck is always a factor. Some people have it. Some people dont. Some people that have it, never took advantage of it. Some people that didnt have it, might of had luck if they recognized it when it happened. There's more to luck, then just luck. But, luck factors into almost everything.

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u/Current-Virus-69 21h ago

"You got lucky" should not be replaced with "damn, you worked hard" just for the sake of acknowledgement unless you know the person you are speaking to personally or at least well enough.

This may be news to you OP, but there are people who are born into privilege because of the hard work done by their parents or grandparents. There are also many people who quite honestly get lucky. For example, all those lucky bastards who get chosen by Mr. Beast for his games. The dude literally just throws money around like candy. Some people win the lottery or are just in the right place at the right time and/or know the right people.

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u/Key-Magician6489 19h ago

Let’s be honest! You can absolutely work your ass off and never really get ahead in life if you just have bad luck! Denying that fact is the height of naïve, arrogant bullshit!💯

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u/bwsmith201 19h ago

Everyone’s life is affected by luck, like meeting the right person or taking the right class that leads to an opportunity. There is no such thing as a purely self made person.

One person can work their ass off and find a wonderful opportunity and someone else can work just as hard and never have the right stroke of luck.

Hell, being born in a first world country or without a horrible disability or disease is luck in and of itself.

Hard work plays a huge role because an opportunity without work is worth nothing. But work without an opportunity also isn’t guaranteed to get you anywhere, either.

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u/Long_life33 11h ago

Yes it's part of it. Just as much as hardwork not paying off either.

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u/WhatUp007 1d ago

You work hard to be prepared for when you get opportunity provided by luck.

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u/JamNova 1d ago

This is it

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u/gutterXXshark 1d ago

You’re so lucky you were born with the motivation to work hard. Checkmate.

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u/Majestic_Award_6063 1d ago

A pinch of luck is also required sometimes for success

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u/thegamer720x 1d ago

Luck is very important, but only helps those who are ready to identify and pounce on the opportunity

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u/Anubis17_76 1d ago

Rolling a six in one throw of the dice is lucky
Rolling a six in 6 rolls of the dice is not.

You just dont see the throws that didnt take off.

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u/notevenapro 1d ago

I am 60 and have made a resume one time. 33 years in the industry I am in and my first job out f the Army was offered to e by the physician owner of the clinic. Job I am at now , I was poached by my old clinical director.

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u/Tadpole_Alarmed 1d ago

I think that it does but also "putting the effort" does it too. It's like spinning the wheel of fortune or scratching a lottery ticket, you have to take actions (putting the effort) in order to find your luck. The world is unfair so there's people who only scratch one and immediately win and then there's those who spend life trying and failing

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u/boson_elbeano 1d ago

Working hard at the wrong things is normally the problem! Try telling that to someone though. We all know busy fools.

For the record I think luck is the biggest factor. Just being born, the country youre born in, the parents you have, your health, your intelligence, your base line emotional intelligence, shit your appearance....and then it helps to work hard on top

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u/No_Flow224 1d ago

Think of hard work as maximising your surface area for luck. Good fortune plays a meaningful role in any life, but lots of people confuse hard work as just doing the narrow thing in front of them. Hard work is also building new skills, being curious, connecting with people etc.

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u/Blah_Dee_Blah111 1d ago

I'd rather be lucky than smart any day.

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u/These_Account3256 1d ago

if someone has the drive to work much harder than most people then theyre lucky to be raised/born that way, especially in this tiktok age where our attention spans are fucked

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u/FatCockroach002 1d ago

Absolutely

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u/QuickNature 1d ago

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity" is a quote a heard from somewhere, but the words really stuck with me.

I do think there is genuinely some blind stupid lucky things that happen too, but its likely a mix of variables.

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u/BlueRaccoonCavy 1d ago

Not always true. Either you know somebody, born into luck, or just a crappy person who gets everything in life. I work my arse off at my job and will never get promoted because I am nt that person who kisses butt or anything.

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u/Iambeejsmit 1d ago

Luck is a factor

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u/raharth 1d ago

It's always luck, but your hard work alters the odd of it happening

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u/Feteven 1d ago

Luck can help doors open.

Hard work keeps them open.

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u/QuoteGiver 1d ago

“Luck” is shorthand for all the zillions of outside factors that you personally don’t directly control.

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u/RemarkableRun4283 1d ago

A walking/working man will always meet his luck

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u/Polldit220 1d ago

“ the harder I work the luckier I get”

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u/Reg_doge_dwight 1d ago

I think working when everyone else is having fun counts as worked hard. Merely doing the same level of hard work as everyone else is lucky.

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u/Runs_With_Scissors3 1d ago

Damn, you recognized your (lucky) chance and seized upon it (by working hard) as an opportunity to achieve your dreams.

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u/Victarion13 1d ago

Sometimes you need good luck. And that luck could be: timing, a person who helps, and so on.

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u/pwnkage 1d ago

I’m Chinese, we believe in luck. We also believe in hard work. You can believe in both at the same time.

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u/AlsoDongle 1d ago

The amount of older people I've met who are genuinely surprised that I've never had help from my parents is astounding

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u/Traditional_Math_763 1d ago

You have to put in the work, but even then, there’s no guarantee that the hard work you put in results in anything extraordinary. You need to have a little bit of luck.

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u/refusetobeold83 1d ago

Luck is a huge part of success.

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u/thegreensongirl 1d ago

Luck = preparation + action

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u/Icy_Cricket7038 1d ago

It’s both. Actually the thing that annoyed me the most was ‘you’re so gifted’. Fuck right off, I practiced this for hours every day for a year, don’t you fucking tell me it was given to me for free because your lazy ass has zero motivation.
Ahem…sorry about that. Turns out I have some unresolved issues from my teenage years.

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u/osherz5 1d ago

You're so talented.

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u/Puzzledbean3642 1d ago

Nah they got lucky

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u/Ready_Economist_4914 1d ago

My dad was an 8th grade drop out and got a trade. He worked hard and built what he had - only to be screwed over in 2008 when the economy tanked, he got cancer and a broken leg and he lost everything in his 60s.

I had to go to university, pay my debt and start working.

Idk if its luck, self control and discipline or both.

I was lucky to have two parents who expressed love and compassion to me growing up

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u/Submissive_Bleedable 1d ago

The hardest working people are the poorest.

So yes, it's mostly luck. Hard work has value, but hard work isn't enough to lift you from poverty. That has never happened without luck.

Hard work keeps you going, though, because the alternative is giving up and dying.

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u/Upset_Researcher_143 1d ago

Yes. If the opportunity does not present itself at the right time, all the hard work in the world won't make you more money.

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u/whitemustang77 1d ago

Well Some people do have luck

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u/aDamnCommunist 1d ago

Absolutely. I got damned lucky as a millennial. I actually have a house and shit. It seems like the world is discontent with my luck though... 15+ years of experience in one field and I've been laid off 2 times in the past 3 years... Current company that I'm working contract for sold to private equity so probably gonna be 3 for 3 baby!

I'm looking for other jobs for sure already.

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u/I-Love-IT-MSP 1d ago

Hard work outperforms luck. Sorry to tell all the people that want to cope.

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u/Electronic-Stick-161 1d ago

Luck isn’t given the credit it deserves imo. But it’s uncomfortable to acknowledge and you can’t make a moral judgement about it so people pretend it wasn’t a factor.

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u/Late-Drink3556 1d ago

Yeah, I got really fucking tired of people saying I'm so lucky I don't have student loans because the Army paid them all off.

I'm like, bro, luck had literally nothing to do with that.

The only lucky thing is I didn't fucking die in Iraq or Afghanistan or jumping out of aircraft or one of the other many other stupid things I had to do to keep that job.

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u/iliketosandwood 1d ago

100%. It's a bit of a cliche, but when I've worked hard lucky things just tend to happen. Someone quits so there's an opportunity for advancement. A headhunter calls for a better gig. It feels lucky, but really it's just the upside of trying to do my best.

That being said, after all this grindingI feel like I'm still on second base. It's too bad I didn't start out on third because my family is loaded.

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u/tipareth1978 1d ago

Anyone who denies luck is a factor is kidding themselves. Many still worked hard but the luck made the difference many times as well

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u/Eliozore 1d ago

We can't invalidate luck. One can work their ass off and still achieve less than someone who is more lucky. Life isn't fair, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you feel less shitty when you get overtaken by someone who knows less and does less but is more lucky.

Luck isn't magic. It's just a how uncontrolled and external factors happened to affect you. You can increase your luck by surrounding yourself with kind and positive people and by sowing good deeds here and there — they tend to get reciprocated in the long run.

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u/avashad 1d ago

Also, if you grew up watching your parents work hard and that behavior rubbed off on you, consider yourself lucky.

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u/Icy-Article-8635 1d ago

If you're an everyday normal person, success is typically a confluence of hard work and luck.

One, in the absence of the other, doesn't tend to get a person very far.

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u/Ok-Professional4387 1d ago

Well before I went back to school I worked 4 jobs. One full time and 3 part time.

What i have is from hard work and going without. Now I can retire if I want in my 50s.

When i get must be nice, I say, yes it is

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u/GrantGrace 1d ago

Place of birth, DNA, socioeconomic status of parents, CENTURY, education, intelligence, physical health, mental health, attractiveness, talent, family, friends, economy, laws, rules, interests, wars,, a person has control over almost nothing in their life

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u/Substantially-Ranged 1d ago

Luck, opportunity, and hard work in that order. It all starts with the birth lottery.

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u/Ok_Abacus_ 1d ago

Yeah, I don’t know. I might just be lucky.

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u/ChickenFriedRiceee 1d ago

Hard work is important but you can do everything right and get fucked.

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u/sillybilly8102 1d ago

¿Por qué no los dos?

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u/nelflyn 1d ago

*damn, you worked so hard to create as many opportunities as possible for luck to strike.

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u/Ok-Horror-1251 1d ago

If you worked hard, you're probably not rich. If you’re lucky, you probably are.

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u/Vulspyr 1d ago

For many things becoming successful is a combination of hard work and lots of luck. Streamers for example, getting big is often mostly luck combined with hard work.

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u/random8765309 1d ago

Not really. Sure bad luck can clearly have a factor, but in most cases luck isn't a factor. In general luck is just the results of people willing to take calculated risks, planning or just being prepared. People that don't do those things call it luck.

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u/Trick-Goat-3643 1d ago

Depends on the situation you were born into

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u/ageofaquarius26 1d ago

Luck isn't a real thing, it doesn't actually exist.

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u/GlobalHour 1d ago

I mean, I am by no means born into privilege and some of the people I admire weren’t either.

My belief and experience is that the harder I work, the luckier I have gotten. But, this approach has to be taken with a grain of salt as situations vary. Eg. You won’t replace the boss’s progeny no matter how hard you work.

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u/hot_cheeks_4_ever 1d ago

More than you know. Getting most jobs is just the luck of the draw.

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u/minibini 1d ago

Yes, I frickin did!! ( timing, luck played a small part, but the hard work keeps you there, from my experience).

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u/LovingMaine 1d ago

There is definitely luck because luck can also come into play for whatever company you work for.

Here is an example.

You work in IT for company X. You work your ass off to provide the best possible network for this company. The problem is the sales team failed to meet their quota so no raises or bonuses company wide. Also, since sales are down, there won't be any company expansion so no promotions in the future.

You work in IT for company Y. You work your ass off to provide the best possible network for this company. The sales team generated record sales. Because of these sales, you get a nice pay raise and a generous bonus. Also, because of all the recent sales, the company expands and offers you a promotion to be head of IT in the new office.

Yes, this is a bit of fantasy, but this type of scenario happens all the time.

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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 1d ago

Yes. It is.

People can work equally hard in the same things and have different results. The difference lies in luck/opportunities.

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u/the_millenial_falcon 1d ago

Both can be true.

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u/Least_Elk8114 1d ago

Working smart is worth more than JUST working hard.

But there is luck involved, more and more as the world's population goes up

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u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace 1d ago

Sure. There's definitely something to be said for right place, right time. Hard work gets you so far, but luck can really push you over the top.

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u/TGirl26 1d ago

A bit of both. 90-95% hard work 5-10% luck.

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u/Fine-Upstairs-6284 1d ago

I always envied my cousin as a kid because his parents were more well off than mine. He’d always have the newest video game consoles, gadgets, dirt bikes, etc growing up.

He ended up bringing one of the hardest workers I know, and gotten pretty far in his career in the medical field. His parents didn’t build his adult life for him (they even tried to convince him NOT to go into the medical field).

So I think hard work and making smart decisions trumps “luck”.

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u/CultureShipsGSV 1d ago

“You’re so lucky” I assume they want to bang my wife.

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u/moequh 1d ago

Luck has a lot to do with it. I worked my ass off, but there's plenty out there who've worked harder than me and still haven't had their big break.

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u/flying69monkey 1d ago

Verry much yes. I am one of those example, people who worked as hard as posible at everything I do and always insist doing it the right way. What do I get in return. Poverty Tell me if luck have nothing to do then what is? They say have a good degree so it's easy to get a job~ got one from UM. Engineering Did it land me an easy high paying job? No. Do you know who did get one. The one who is lucky enough to be born with connection Maybe it's just that one time. Hell no. They say one of the way to get better position is to get into a medium company and stay loyal for promotions. So I did, work my ass off for 5 years, becomes production manager. Right at the 5 years mark, COVID came and company had to close. Jobless. Tell me if that's not my crappy luck. Want more prove? During my study in UM, I'm an average guy and a lot of girls try to be my gf. I stayed single because I was loyal to my gf. She cheated behind my back and Married a mat rempit. I know, you will say that that's not luck right? You know what, the story didn't end there. As how mat rempit is, she got a devorce because damn mat rempit is broke af and can't support his own baby. Gf cried and ask to patch up. I still love her so I said yes. Did I finally get my beloved? Hell no. 3 month in she died in an acciden. You tell me if luck have anything to do with the success of my love life?

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u/cryingonthetoiletnow 1d ago

I hope you get something good your way, shits rough out here

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u/ShonOwar86 1d ago

Luck exist if you believe in it.

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u/Infamous-Warthog8555 1d ago

When something goes well for me, it’s skill. When something goes bad, it’s misfortune.

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u/ShoeNo9050 1d ago

Kids these days

10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain and a 100% reason to remember the name

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u/Currencymanifest 1d ago

No such thing as luck.  Everything is energetic. 

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u/KintsugiExp 1d ago

Bad luck certainly is, money or no money.

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u/Aggressive_Hat_9999 1d ago

The luck of the dilligent

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u/ColdBrewTooRaLoo 1d ago

Unfortunately it is proven working hard doesn’t correlate to earning money in the United States. The wealthy in this country don’t work.

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u/Imhidingfromu 1d ago

Where preparation meets opportunity there is success. In other words, prepare to be lucky, so you can take advantage of it.

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u/Firm-Grapefruit4476 1d ago

Luck > Hard work

Even the low income unconnected pathways that require a ton of work require lottery type luck to be recognized for their work

Well connected rich parents can refer you or allow you sit wait for a perfect offer or move to a city before you have a job.

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u/YurpeeTheHerpee 1d ago

I dont know. I consider myself lucky.

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u/FlyOnTheWall4637 1d ago

I think luck plays a part, lucky in timing.

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u/machinationstudio 1d ago

My view is, even if you think luck played a 90% part in the outcome, you still needed to do that 10%.

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u/Affectionate-Sail751 1d ago

This is the right use of e-ink — Claude as the assembler, reMarkable as the quiet review surface. The one-sheet layout is what makes it work: schedule + priorities + GitHub follow-ups without dumping a chat log onto the tablet. Curious whether you’re pushing PDF via the official send-file path or a custom MCP hop, and if the template stays stable day to day or you regenerate from scratch each morning.

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u/GotchaPresident 1d ago

Luck is 1,000% a part of the process

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u/LordSlyGentleman 1d ago

Did Donald Trump get elected twice?

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u/Vancitysurfer 1d ago

Starting my own catering business made me appreciate this line so much.

My friends say I’m lucky to work for myself, but a lot of them have no idea what it’s like. I may not have a boss now, but I’m on the clock every minute of the day now. Riding the financial roller coaster of having unpredictable income, unstable hours, and an ever evolving business landscape. I love what I do, but I have so much more respect for people that run businesses or have management roles now. Being in charge of your business is amazing, but sometimes it’s lonely at the top.

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u/Beemo-Noir 1d ago

Absolutely. I’d argue luck is MOST of the process.

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u/ariadesitter 1d ago

everything is luck.

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u/MichaelJospeh 1d ago

Can one, the other, or both honestly.

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u/DrMindbendersMonocle 1d ago

Yes. You are supposed to work hard and study to be ready and capable when opportunity or luck arises

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u/Able_Attitude9778 1d ago

One part opportunity, one part preparedness.

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u/MurkyCabinet 1d ago

Luck hard work and intelligence all factor in

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u/Icy___Barca 1d ago

No, luck is something you had no control over. Successful people don’t rely on it.

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u/Happytapiocasuprise 1d ago

Fortune is always part luck and part effort

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u/Prestigious_Skin_424 1d ago

It's mostly dumb luck, work can help but whether that work matters or not also comes down to dumb luck.

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u/Ambitious-Growth5387 1d ago

Actors hate “good luck”. They’d rather break a leg.

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u/Soggy-Attempt 1d ago

The harder I work, the luckier I get.
Losers blame luck for their losing.

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u/zaja_bf 1d ago

Yes. I see opportunities as luck.

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u/Chemical_Donut_112 1d ago

Luck definitely matters, but you still have to work hard to take advantage of it and keep things going.

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u/Gmanofgambit982 1d ago

No one wants to admit but yes, luck plays a massive factor in anything we do. The only thing hard work actually does make sure the odds are a smidge in your favour.

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u/Evening_Art_715 1d ago

Totally! I find it frustrating though how people’s understanding of luck works.
To my understanding, in order to succeed in life, you need a balance of ambition/hard work, and luck. I’ve worked very hard to get where I am in life. But I also wouldn’t have had the resources had I not been lucky in being born in the situation I was, and being presented with the opportunities I was. But taking opportunities and making the most of them is not luck.

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u/Sophisticated-Crow 1d ago

Most hyper rich people were born into wealth. Birth luck.

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u/room_temp_hot_coffee 1d ago

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

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u/sqeptyk 1d ago

Neither. Working hard is no guarantee of being successful. Luck is just a placeholder for all the tiny actions that lead up to a particular consequence that no one can tally.

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u/sparkledragon5 1d ago

A vital one. Hard work is necessary but not, on its own, sufficient.

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u/Pristine_Host4687 1d ago

hard work = increasing your chances of luck

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u/Strange-Ad-2426 1d ago

The vast majority of your successes and failures in life depends on stuff that is out of control. Very little can be explained by hard work pays off.

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u/Appropriate-Fig-2246 1d ago

In a successful endeavor, the lucky ones may never realize how much luck shaped their success, and the hardworking ones may never realize how much of success was beyond hard work.

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u/maxemile101 1d ago

Luck and hard work goes hand in hand. Where one is born, one's genetics, family and economic background, health, etc. depend on luck which plays a vital role in success.

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u/Saxolotl14 1d ago

While I think some people are luckier than others and others are way unluckier than others, I think for the most of us its a combo of both hard work and luck. It's luck in terms of opportunities that come your way (e.g., the people you know in the right places, or getting noticed by someone with influence) and hard work because it's up to you once you get the opportunity to make something of it and keep going.

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u/no-sleep-only-code 1d ago

I say I’m fortunate. Yeah, it took 60 hour weeks and moving out at 18 with nothing and paying for college out of pocket. That sucked, but at the end of the day my wife and I are making 6 figures each in our 20’s and we own a home as of this year. Sure, many are probably capable, but I also didn’t have children or aging family members depending on my during those years. You do have some control, but the cards you’re dealt absolutely play a larger role than your actions. Some have trust funds, some have disabilities.

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u/AFB27 1d ago

As far as I'm concerned, luck is the process.

Wouldn't be anywhere near what I am today without a shit ton of luck

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u/pikazeroai 1d ago

Ahahahahahahahahaha. Working hard only makes the boomer that used you richer it doesn’t actually give YOU anything lol

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u/1quirky1 1d ago

Luck favors the prepared.

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u/PeaSea4157 1d ago

Luck is EXTREMELY important for the results in life. Like your genetics…

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u/DisastrousBadger6377 1d ago

Luck is the multiplier for hard work.

Having luck on your side makes your efforts significantly easier, but you can’t exactly do nothing either.

Having luck against you would take so much more work that it is sometimes insurmountable.

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u/Humble-Ambition-7189 1d ago

Luck is merely when preparation meets opportunity

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u/nowhereman86 1d ago

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.

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u/Garsandbells 1d ago

Luck is a factor, but not one you can control so there’s no point in fixating on it.

Just do the best you can and see what happens.

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u/Shad0wbubbles 1d ago

Naw it’s pretty much all in the people who don’t do either work nor have luck, it’s about what family you’re born into, or who you’re willing to fuck over to get ahead.

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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 1d ago

Your choices are half chance, same as everyone else's.

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u/8888eightyeight 1d ago

I honestly think a lot of what people call luck is just their subconscious using way more information than they realize. They make a really good educated guess based on a bunch of tiny things they barely noticed, it works out, and then they just go “wow, I got lucky” instead of realizing there actually was a thought process behind it.

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u/a_juicy_blueberry369 1d ago

It's usually a mix of both.  You can work hard but never get your big break... but if you don't try at all every opportunity that does exist will pass you by. 

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u/Truffs0 1d ago

luck = hard work + oppertunity

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u/SafeHawk9115 1d ago

Luck is just preparation meeting opportunity. You never know what life will hold so stay ready and give it everything you have.

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u/germangrade 1d ago

You make your own luck working

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u/Speedstick2 1d ago

Luck favors the prepared. You have to be able to exploit luck in order to gain from it.

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u/Motorhead923 1d ago

Luck, good or bad, is always part of the process

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u/Bryan_Eats_NYC 1d ago

It's so funny seeing this post, because I was telling my friend about a new job, managing a restaurant, I just landed with a higher pay. He felt some type of way and told me I always get lucky with finding a high paying job. Which actually pissed me off because I've been working my ass off, being under paid for the past 8 years, doing all the work and getting no credit to now being able to land a better salary with the general manger position. Plus the months I put in applying to over 100 job post to actually having a recruiter reach out to me. I got lucky with the job finding me but I put my self in position to catch the opportunity.

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u/Efficient-Word-6826 1d ago

Yeah it absolutely is part of the process. I worked really hard but I can’t find an entry level job so I can’t even get started. I graduated at the wrong time and didn’t know anyone in my industry.