What's Luck Got To Do With Success? A Lot

Luck matters. Profoundly. There is a tendency particularly amongst successful people to believe they got there largely by their talent, effort, tenacity and smart decisions but there is strong evidence that suggests that luck and opportunity play a far greater role.

- Ravi Venkatesan

For instance, half of the income differences across people globally is simply explained by the location and family where they were born. So are differences in life expectancy. This is called winning an ‘ovarian lottery’. Now imagine being born a girl in Afghanistan. No matter how much talent or grit you have, life would be uphill. Geography is destiny for most people. And that is just the beginning.

Why is one person struck by some catastrophic illness? Why does another win the jackpot by being hired early by a unicorn? Of course, a lot of personal characteristics such as hard work, optimism, tenacity, a growth mindset and skills do matter but without a healthy dose of good luck, they may not result in great success. We know this but like to believe we are more in control of our life than we are; it is more empowering to believe this than the reality that you are just one person in a game with seven billion other people and infinite moving parts.

That does not mean we give up or stop trying. It simply means being aware and humble enough to understand that there are many forces and random events that shape the way our life eventually turns out. And there is a lot you can do to improve your luck and stay lucky. Over the years I have developed a few practices to ensure that the good luck keeps flowing.

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