What is important in life: luck or hard work?

55 Answers

Rohit Sharma, Author - "Luck Re-engineering" & "Mental Model Innovation"

Updated Mar 27, 2016

Hard Work is what you do and luck is what happens to you. One is active and another is passive state. Luck is generated by the
intuitive processing system (System 1) while hard work is what you do with rational system (System 2).

Intuitive Processing (System 1) is 99% responsible for what we do as humans. When you park your car and walk to the mall door,
you do it intuitively and do not solve a differential calculus formula.

When luck is not working for you or working against you, you compensate by working hard. Hard work is a
compensatory mechanism for overcoming resistance in your intuitive side.

I call these resistances in our intuitive brain as "dead weights". When we work hard, we use counterweights to offset the
deadweights. If we could somehow remove the deadweights in our intuitive side, we could achieve things effortlessly. Somehow,
there is a belief system that hard work and struggle is a rite of passage to success. I completely disagree.

As people cannot tell us how to improve luck, they advise us to work hard as they dont know how to reprogram the intuitive side.
This epiphany one day combined with an working knowledge of luck let me to quit a lucrative career and jump start a venture.

If you want to read more about Luck and how our unconscious decisions lead to luck, I have written in detail in this answer Rohit
Sharma's answer to How big a factor is luck in startup success?

13.6k Views View Upvotes

Related QuestionsMore Answers Below

Which wins in real life, hard work vs. luck?

I don't understand why people get rich around me. I still earn 2k a month. Don't I work hard or is it just bad luck?

What is a difference between human life, luck, and hard work?

What matters the most: hard-work, a sharp-mind or luck?

Is in practical life, only hard work matters? Is there no role of luck?

Stephen Doherty, I've lived, I've laughed, I've loved, I've lost.

Updated Apr 30, 2016

Really what you are asking is which is more important: the controllables in life or the uncontrollables in life?
All you can ever do is control the controllables (hard work). You can't control the uncontrollables (luck) because of their very nature.

So focus on the controllables, and remember what the famous golfer Gary Player said:

7.4k Views View Upvotes

Jeff Osborn, Living it like it won't last.

Updated Mar 4, 2016

Hard work alone, absent luck, will never assure success, especially not material success. Due to my unusual work history in
Guatemala and Silicon Valley and other tech centers of the U.S., I can say with certainty that the hardest working people I ever met
were not the CEOs in startups. Sure, I've done my 100 hour weeks, and yes, it's all very hard, but not the hardest work. Don't fool
yourself. Poor women in Guatemala making shoes in a factory and going home to feed their families without lights, electricity or
transport, cooking over wood fires and doing laundry in a stream with rocks, and raising half a dozen children, are all working
harder than any startup CEO can imagine.

Closer to home, here in Silicon Valley, I know people who work as cleaners, everyday, from dawn to dark, for very little money. I'd
say much harder than any CEO.

Don't flatter yourself. If you are a big material success, you didn't earn it by being the hardest worker in the world. Lots of people
work much harder for much less. Never forget how much you owe to luck for your success. If Bill Gates had been born in 6th century
Eritrea to goatherds, he would have been a very poor, very shitty goatherd, losing his flock due to bad eyesight. We all owe a great
deal to luck. Certainly more than to hard work. Get over yourself and be grateful.

21.7k Views View Upvotes

Ed Caruthers, more concerned with what happens than with what was supposed to happen

Written Aug 10, 2015

Both are important, as are many other factors - intelligence, education, good judgment, ... And they all interact. Being seriously
deficient in any area can really screw up your life. Yo9u can work really hard all thourgh school and drop dead on graduation day.
You can be born rich, spend it all foolishly, and end poor. You can sleep late every day while opportunity is knocking at your door
bright and early.

Fortunately intelligence, education, careful planning, and consistent execution can increase your chances of having good luck in
some areas. See Ed Caruthers' answer to Is it really possible to make your own luck?

4.3k Views View Upvotes

Rahul Sinha, Experienced the Ups & Downs of life so closely.

Written Jul 24, 2015

As the saying goes, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

In short, without hard work, or preparation, luck won't mean a thing. If a perfect opportunity arises, one in which you have been
waiting for weeks, months, or even years, the luck of that moment will be pointless if you have not put in the sufficient time and
effort to succeed.

Thank you!

3.3k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Pawan Asati

Jon Mixon, I'm alive and I think. That's why I can give advice.

Updated Aug 10, 2015

Luck.
Seriously.

You can work your ass off 80-100 hours a week, every week.You can do all of the correct things. You can stay out of legal and
financial trouble and you can become a role model for others in your community. And then it can all disappear in the blink of an eye.

If you are lucky, things go your way, You get the callbacks for jobs and opportunities that others do not. You manage to avoid to all of
the pitfalls that seem to engulf others in trouble while doing as much as they do , if not more. You can find yourself in on multiple
opportunities in positions where you should have failed and you do not.

While hard work has helped me out in life, luck has definitely provided me with greater benefits. I have been exceptionally fortunate
in my life and when I compare the times when I spent hours practicing, learning and training with the opportunities which have
dropped into my lap, I always come out ahead when I was lucky.
While I work hard, I also realize that it is meaningless the majority of the time without even the slightest bit of luck.

42.7k Views View Upvotes

Sava Chankov, manager at a small software company, urban gardening teacher and freelance reporter

Written Aug 12, 2015

Let's use some objective math to find an answer to this question. Suppose you try to do something and you have just 1% chance of
success. This means that more or less 1 in every 100 attempts is successful. If you succeed after trying only once, you would be
considered extremely lucky. If you succeed on your 101. attempt, you would be considered extremely hard working. Suppose
however that nobody knows absolutely nothing about the hundred failures everyone will just assume the root cause of your
triumph was a four-leaf clove you own.

Most of the time when people judge someone to be lucky they know nothing about the many past unsuccessful efforts of that person.
Take for example Steve Jobs. Did you know that he failed twice at producing a personal computer? First time it was with Lisa in
1983, second time with NeXT ten years later both were financial flops. Yet each failure did not discourage him of trying once again
and those next shots were quite fruitful first Mac in 1984, then iMac fourteen years later.

So if you're not lucky, all you're left with is hard work to earn that luck.

2.8k Views View Upvotes

Lukasz Laniecki, Fighting social pressure and silly tradition.

Written Aug 13

This is one of those questions that only give you two options to choose from. And the or between them tells you that you cant even
come up with the third immediate option which is both.

Many more things can be important in life, but if we ask questions like this we will never find out because the majority of people will
answer in the same manner in which the question was asked - they will choose between luck and hard work.

To answer this question, I think both luck and hard work are very important (the third, nonexistent choice).

Hard work matters but if you work hard your entire life and never get the chance to do something you love/ work on something that
excites you, then even if you will have luck and win a lottery or totally unexpectedly inherit a fortune most of your days will suck.

In such case you had enormous luck (winning a lottery or inheriting a fortune doesnt happen that often) and many, many, many
days of hard work in your life, but your life was miserable.

So based on that example can we really say that either luck or hard work was important?

Unfortunately, most lottery winners lives suck. Why? Because most of them lack self-awareness and the money alone will not make
their lives beautiful in an instant.
In my opinion if you spend your life dreaming about winning a lottery one day (to never have to work again) and you never do
something meaningful with your life, it means your life sucks. In that case even if you win the lottery at the age of 65 or 80 and thats
all you accomplished in your life (because your hard work was never about more than working hard) your life sucked.

To be fulfilled in life, to enjoy your life you need work that is your passion. You need to love what you do. Because if you always work
hard in jobs that you hate what quality of life can you expect?

When you love what you do in your life, when youre excited to get out of bed every single day of your life (or at least most days of
your life), either because you know youre still searching and wont settle, or because youve discovered what it is that gives you
energy every single day and that excites you so much that you could do it even if nobody paid you for it, you will enjoy working hard.

So I think hard work is important (way more important than the blind luck) but only if you are self-aware and really know what it is
that youre doing.

On the other hand, hard work that is drudgery is not at all important - every minute you spend on that work will only make you more
miserable.

To me one kind of luck is when you are in that sweet spot, if you love what you do and enjoy the process.

This kind of luck is rarely blind. The majority of people who are in that sweet spot had some help from the universe (some quantum
moment as Wayne W. Dyer used to call it, others call it a formative moment) but they were also aware enough to recognize that
moment, courageous enough to refuse to follow the conventional path to success, and willing to work really hard. As a matter of
fact they work harder than the majority of people on this planet.

There is a difference between hard work that saps all your energy (something most people experience and hate) and hard work that
gives you even more energy (something that people who love what they do experience and also love).

The other kind of luck is:

showing up in the right place at the right time.

saying yes to the right thing and no to the wrong one.
coming up with the correct answer or spotting an emerging trend.
when youve received acclaim for your work during your lifetime.

Not everyone has this kind of luck.

Its hard to believe, but during his lifetime Van Gogh received hardly any acclaim for his work. While alive, he only sold one of his
paintings, and that was to a friend for a very small amount of money. Despite this, he continued working throughout his life, never
seeing success himself, though his paintings now are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So doing what you love in life, showing up every single day to do your work with a smile on your face is the kind of luck you can
create for yourself if only you are willing to refuse to follow the conventional path to success, which also means that you need a
much greater degree of self-awareness than the majority of people.

And thats already a big win. This kind of luck is often referred to as preparation. Doing something despite the fact that you didnt
(yet) show up in the right place at the right time/ say yes to the right thing/ come up with the correct answer or spot an emerging
trend/ receive acclaim for your work.

Theres no innovator, inventor or creator in the history of the world who does something amazing without failing at least several
times first. The time before they have their breakthrough moment is when preparation takes place/ when they hone their craft doing
what they love.

There is absolutely no guarantee that you will have your breakthrough moment during your lifetime. But does it mean you should
quit doing what you love and eliminate the other kind of luck from your life?

Of course not!
1.3k Views View Upvotes

Tungchang Hsieh, SoLoMo (Social Local Mobile), Traitor of Taoism

Written Jul 25, 2011

I agree that luck is somewhat mysterious or hard to explain, otherwise it is "no luck" at all.

However, I really don't understand that people try to dismiss luck as pure product of "hardship or attitude". Yes, hard work will
increase you chance of success, but "luck" is a completely different monster. It strikes like "lottery" or "successful start-up story like
Microsoft/Facebook/Google". Don't tell me how smart or diligent those founders are, they are probably at least one million out of
one billion people at the same level or better.

If success is a coin, luck is the dark side of it. It's anything you don't know or can't explain. Maybe in retrospect, you find it is just
something ridiculously simple. But you simply didn't know them yet back then, and it's generally considered as "luck". The lottery
winner or successful founders may believe or try to believe they had the number, which is simply not true. The result could easily
change if the dice is run again.

Like it or not, lucky or not, fair or unfair. All you could do is try first and try hard if you are really invested, or you
are not giving "luck" the chance to strike upon you.

Or you can try to learn from other things/people to know more in an attempt to reduce the role of dark luck.
Think about it, if you have a GPS mobile phone, you don't need to count on luck to find the way out.

17.8k Views View Upvotes

John Hwang, Stanford CS, Former Exotics Trader @ GS, Head VIX Trader @ Morgan Stanley

Written Aug 3, 2013

Depends:

1) If you are doing something that's a series of repeated trials (like investing), then hard work will eventually pay off.

2) If you are working at a company, you need luck to get successful (people really really underestimate this), because you are
dependent on others for your success.

3) If you are doing your own business, you will need a lot of hard work, but luck will seal the deal. One stroke of good or bad luck is
the dealbreaker.

13.2k Views View Upvotes

Anisa Virji, studied at Brown University

Written Sep 7, 2015

Sometimes it feels like the forces are conspiring against you. Nothing is working out - things are going wrong - you're just unlucky. I
once wrote an article about how hard work and perseverance is the road to success. One reader wrote back to tell me, 'Here in India,
luck also counts for a lot. If you don't have luck you can never have success.'

Yes, perhaps there is such a thing as luck. But there is no such thing as lucky. Good things happen to people, and bad things happen
to people. And it kind of averages out at the end ... luck is the great unifier. It evens us all out. No matter how big a lottery you win
(thanks to good luck) you could still die the next day (thanks to bad luck). (Thank you Alanis!)

Acknowledge that all is not within your control - it's not in anyone's control. The people who make it are those who keep on working
to overcome obstacles rather than obsessing with the inevitability of luck. They're the persisters, perhaps the hard workers. When
they make it everyone else probably points at them and says - So lucky!

So don't obsess with luck, as you go through life you will probably go through a string of 'bad luck' until you hit your big pot of 'good
luck' - you just gotta learn to, cliched as it sounds, enjoy the ride.

Some of this answer is excerpted from an article I wrote

Are You Living Your Worst Life?

2.4k Views View Upvotes

Altus Viljoen, Read a lot of self-help books.

Written Dec 8, 2015

"The more I practice, the luckier I get" - Gary Player (Google him if you don't about him).

Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of the 10 000 hours rule. If you work 10 000 hours at something, you will become a master
at it. He looked at Bill Gates, The Beatles and other successful people to find where they share a common trait. The common trait
was hard work.
BUT: it seems that some people just get things because they are lucky. That is true. There are certainly a lot of people who become
successful mostly through luck. Whether they are blessed with a vast inheritance or good looks, it's luck. However, we are not all
born with the same luck, and some of us have to work hard to achieve that same level. Warren Buffet essentially called this
the Ovarian Lottery.

Also, if you work hard, remember to work at something with long-run potential to make you successful. You can work for 80 hours a
week as a janitor, but after 30 years you won't be successful (depending on what you define as success - I interpret it to at least be
financially prosperous). That's why people go to college - they give up earning full-time for four or more years, but in the long run it
pays off (even with debt).

In conclusion, you need to manage your hard work cleverly in order to utilize the maximum "luckiness". Hard work (and the times
that you fail) gives you a base to work from: when the time comes to utilize an opportunity, you will have experience to know (or
predict fairly well) whether or not you will be successful with regards to that venture. To other people it may seem like luck, but if
you look closer, it's the result of hard work. Yes, some people just get lucky, but most of the luck is generated by a lot of unseen hard
work.

You might just not know it yet.

2.9k Views View Upvotes

Jennifer Ellis, Legal Ethics Attorney in PA, USA & Law Firm Marketing Consultant

Written Aug 10, 2015

Hard work and awareness of and ability to take advantage of opportunities (i.e. luck.) All of the luck in the world won't lead
anywhere if you don't know how to take advantage of it. And normally it takes hard work to take advantage of the luck, or the luck
comes from the hard work.

2.7k Views View Upvotes

Nitin Yadav, I am pleased with my life

Written Jul 24, 2015

Well , a mixture of both is ideal but if I have to chose one of these , I would chose hard work.Simply because ,success in your
endeavors resulting from luck doesn't give you the satisfaction that you get from your hard -work.It gives you self - worth and
enhances your confidence .Self-confidence is the most essential trait for you to live your life .Forget competition or success ,if you
don't have self - confidence ,you will even hesitate to do mundane things of your life .On the other hand , luck will increase your self-
doubt .You will fear life and try to runaway from it.

Life is not about success or failure .These things are secondary and doesn't matter much .What matters is how much you have
tried ,experimented ,explored this world and you don't need luck for it. Maybe you won't get your desired result, but you will enjoy
your journey and will take pride in it

1.6k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Pawan Asati

Suraiya Jabeen, La vie est belle:-)

Written Jul 24, 2015

The wise words of Thomas Jefferson sums up the situation:

Im a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Sometimes a blend of both luck and hard work will bring us success. But given the choice always prefer hard work since relying on
luck alone won't work.

1.8k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Pawan Asati

Chrys Jordan, has bendable knee joints.

Written Jul 27, 2015

Both are.

But the only one you can influence is how hard you work. Whether you are lucky or not is beyond your control. But you can decide
how hard you will work for it.

If you were lucky but had not worked hard enough to take advantage of your luck, that would be worse than not having had the
chance.

Thanks for the A2A, Pawan Asati. Sorry for the late answer.

1.9k Views View Upvotes Answer requested by Pawan Asati

Gregory Haardt, Seasoned enterprise and SaaS product leader. Agile expert. Team builder.

Written Jan 31, 2016

There is an old saying: "You make your own luck". In other words, you need to work hard to put yourself in a situation to get lucky.

Was Bill Gates lucky or did he work hard to get Microsoft off the ground?
He was lucky to be at the right place at the right time, but he also worked extremely hard to be ready for the opportunities that would
come his way. When IBM was looking for a company to build the PC operating system, he and his team at Microsoft understood the
potential and were ready to capitalize on it. The rest is history.

3.3k Views View Upvotes

Amaro Caldas Araujo, had failing businesses and almost failing relations and learned along the way

Written Sep 3

Funny as I wrote a while ago an article called "Are you Lucky or smart", you can read it here http://bit.ly/2c2Kz9q.
What is important? both, but hard work doesn't mean necessarly accomplishement.
How's that?
If you're lucky but not hard worker, you might succeed at some level but for how long??
If you're hard worker but but not lucky, you might succedd at some level as well but not constant.
If you're not Lucky neither hard worker you're most likely screwed (unless you screw the others around you).
If you're Lucky and hard worker, well congrats you may well be enjoying you're life.
Now the reserve about being hard worker is that you need to assure your needle is pointing to the right direction.
Example, imagine yourself running like hell, but running in the wrong direction. It's worthless. You're running for nothing. Now if
you adjust the cursor, it's a different story.
Remember the 10.000 hour rule that says if you practice something for about 10.000 hours you're on the top 100 in the world at
that. Imagine you don't do it for 10.000 but only 5.000, still your on a good position right?
Now add some luck to that hard work and imagine where it could take you.
The big question here is when do you recognize luck is knocking on the door (or you let it go away, or you stay in between).
More in my blog http://bit.ly/1TXq4t9

819 Views

Justin Belmont, ProseMedia.com (content writing service)

Written Aug 3, 2013

As the old adage goes, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." So to simply answer your question, without
hard work, or in this case, "preparation," luck won't mean a thing. If a perfect opportunity arises, one in which you have been waiting
for for weeks, months, or even years, the luck of that moment will be pointless if you have not put in the time and effort to succeed.

7.7k Views View Upvotes

Michael J Flanigan, Entrepreneur, Operations Manager @hypepotamus. Doing too much, slowly trying to do less.

Written Oct 4, 2012

It's a combination of both. Hard work often creates opportunity, which can allow for luck to happen. I think luck also has a lot to do
with being around the right people as well. If you network and are in the places where you want to be, then you can get lucky and
have things that are considered lucky happen a lot easier.
But hard work is always what you need. It beats everything at the end of the day.

7.8k Views View Upvotes

Brando Peter, Armchair philosopher and reformed pessimist

Written Sep 4, 2015

I don't believe in luck and hard work but I do believe in smarts. I have worked throughout my career doing the bare minimum it
takes (sometimes a bit more but only when absolutely necessary) and am doing pretty decently, getting paid at the top end of my
field. I know that this approach to earning a living will not make me stupendously rich but I know too that entrepreneurship is a very
hard, long and risky winding road that I'm not quite willing to take yet.

If you're willing to put in the hours, hard work working for yourself is important for succeeding.

1.2k Views View Upvotes

Yogesh Mishra, I'm no better than you..

Written Oct 24

Both.

To be very honest, let me twll you LUCK is there and many people get lucky at right moments but you can never know when you'll
get lucky.

It's more like game. You control your steps and sometimes even your count but never know if the stop will be have a ladder or a
snake for you. Hard work part is yours and Luck part is out of your control. People usually get lucky with their hard work. Luck can't
be sustainable without hard work in its place.

Chances of achievement is higher with hard work and it's very rare that something other than this happens. So, never ever give up
the hard work.

Have faith and keep working hard in he right direction for your goals. Actions results in changes sooner or later.

~ YMI

431 Views View Upvotes

Vikas Jain, Working for 14+ years now !!

Written Apr 11, 2016

I have the following saying (among several others) as a reminder every morning:

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity."

Though I am not 100% committed to follow every good advice (being Human), I make sure to remind myself that there is no Luck
without Hard work, perseverance, discipline, passion and constant endeavour of self-improvement.

One of my previous Manager said to me that you are the best judge of your shortcomings and you alone know how to overcome them
and improve yourselves.

So your goal in Life should be to fill the gaps in your Knowledge, Personality, Physique and any other traits which are within your
control so that when an opportunity strikes, you should be ready to grab it.

Luck is uncertain and beyond your control !!

997 Views View Upvotes

Emanuele Peretti, ICT Officer at European Commission

Written Apr 28, 2016

I really like this question.

You can't take one of them because luck is nothing without hard work. And viceversa.

Life is a sequence of opportunities you have to take. You must be conscious enough to see them and you must be prepared enough to
take them. Do you start to see the point?

That moment when you have an opportunity, you see it and you are prepared to take it is what I call luck. This means that you
always have to work hard to be ready to take the opportunities life put in front of you. It also means that you have to develop your
consciousness to properly see such opportunities. The better you are in seeing such opportunities the more success you will have in
life. Trust me when I tell you that this this affects your whole life, from the businesses you'll start to the friendship you'll made
passing to a whole series of decisions you'll take. So be ready for them. Train yourself to see the opportunities. And don't waste all
those training by not taking them when they present themselves to you.

I did it in my past. I quit a very well paid job to move to France with a 3 months old baby for a 3 months long contract. Everybody
told me I was crazy. But I saw an opportunity no one else was able to see. 7 years later I'm here in the nation I wanted to live into,
with a job that is 4 times better paid then the one I quit with a huge baggage of experiences that helps me seeing even more
opportunities where several other people see ruins.

That's how I understood that luck is when the preparation meet an opportunity.

975 Views View Upvotes

Pallavi Baruah, a random blip

Written Nov 28, 2014

A combination of two I would say.

You can work really hard but if you do not strategise your career ladder, where you want to go or be... you will anyway lose out in a
way that you will be one of the many who are still working hard... all your life without really getting anywhere you really want to be.

Defining your goals is always important... before you even start anything.

What do you want to achieve ?

Where do you want to go ?
Why are you here ?
What opportunities can you get ?
How can you learn more ?
How can I optimize my work ?
How can I be more efficient ?
and so on...

Working smart is best... you can work hard and also be smart about taking up opportunities which could be calculating risks but
mostly it pays off..

Cannot compromise with hard work = dedication = commitment to excellence in whatever you do...

In my team, when I meet really hard working people, I teach them how to recognize opportunity after understanding their interests.
And yes it makes an unbeatable combination - hard work and smart work definitely works with luck ( which I translate into
opportunity) .... :)

4.8k Views

Anirudh Joshi

Written Aug 4, 2013

Yeah Thomas Jefferson wouldn't such a self congratulatory prick if he was a woman or black back then. I'd like to see him hard work
himself out of the horrific slavery and the rampant sexism of the time.

Luck is overwhelming the most important factor in success.

Anyone who says otherwise has their life difficulty setting set way too low.

17.9k Views View Upvotes

Saumya Tiwari, works at Life and Living

Written Jul 24, 2015

The things in your control always make you powerful. Hard work is in your hand, luck is not. Hard work will never betray you, but
luck won't always work in your favor.

1k Views View Upvotes

Shobhit Singhal, life is beautiful

Written Aug 10, 2015

"The harder you work, the luckier you get"

Luck = Hardwork + Opportunity

So, when opportunity arises, hardworking people are more prepared to take full advantage of it, thus increasing their chance of
success which is called luck.

938 Views View Upvotes

Rebeca Jones, works at You Know That One Place Next to the Place

Written Jun 26, 2015

Hard work. If you are a lucky person, but not hard working, what happens when you run out of luck? You suddenly do not know
how to do stuff without doing minimal effort, if that makes any sense at all.

So hard work. Always.

3.5k Views View Upvotes

Mahesh RS, I have a new blog on Quora. Please check it: https://mylifeon.quora.com/

Written Aug 10, 2015

This is an interesting question. And I may have an interesting answer. (Note the "may" in that sentence, because you get to decide.)

Eons ago, back in school, I had written an essay on how "hard work" was more important than luck. A lot of people my age had liked
the essay. I had suddenly become a star in the school. The teacher called me in and said it was well written, but, she didn't agree with
my overall premise because I didn't have enough experience in life. Smart-azz that I was, I said something to the effect, albeit
respectfully: let's agree to disagree.

At home, my mother didn't agree with the premise either. But what was more shocking to her was the small part of the essay had
hints of atheism. And to a typical, Indian, Hindu mother of a typical, Indian, Hindu, middle-class family that was completely and
absolutely unacceptable. Well, at least to my mother ... her youngest child leaning towards atheism was completely and absolutely
unacceptable.

My premise was quite simple: only hard work mattered in life. Nothing else mattered: not luck, not God's grace! (Now
you know where my theist mom went berserk after reading the essay her youngest child had put together.)

Today, after having lived for a few eons and having "experienced" life, I couldn't agree more with both my teacher and my
mother.
I have seen lucky slackers being successful. Friends would say I am a classic example of that. I have seen lucky lazy-bums
being successful. Dad would say I am a classic example of that. And I have seen smart, hard-working folks being
unsuccessful!

Today, I am willing to change my premise altogether: too many things have to come together to guarantee your success in
life. Very few of those things are under your control. Hard, smart work is a very small part of that entire equation. There are too
many unknowns that are beyond your control. And no matter how well you try to compensate for all those factors that are beyond
your control, you cannot be successful if all the factors are not "just right". All those factors wich are beyond your control, we
will call them "luck."

Point being: it's not an either-or as in "luck or hard work", it is an "and" ... "luck (factors beyond your control) and
smart, hard work (factors within your control)".

Just my thoughts. Open to arguments, but, don't argue for the sake of it. Let's stop being the "argumentative Indian" or the
"argumentative Quoran". :)

967 Views

Amit Datta, Travel over 25kms oneway, 3hrs total daily

Written Apr 10, 2016

Well, this is a tough question. To be short and precise - both are important and so are a lot of other factors. If you are a hard worker
and don't have luck then you may not have the opportunities to turn your hard work into success. On the other hand if you just have
luck you may not be able to utilize your opportunities to the fullest. Having said that, if you are both a hard worker and have luck,
still you may not succeed if you lack common sense. So if you are planning to be successful these are two of the many factors
required.

PS: I see passion, respect, integrity and discipline as the main factors of success. Everything else follows.

770 Views View Upvotes

Maria Kim

Written Jul 21, 2011

I guess luck in every kind of human activity is a sequence of hard work and good attitude, good character. If you work hard, try your
best to deliver the best you can, if you respect your colleagues,your partners, behave in an ethical way then people unconsciencely
will stick to you - and you'll have more possibilities. To a third party observer these things seem like luck but generally there are few
things that happen just by accident. You can find logic behind many magical success stories if you think it over.

regarding sales it's no different. Recently I've read an article on that matter, specifically - are salespeople born or made. I was
impressed with the outcomes. You can check it out here http://www.soldlab.com/homeare-t...

6.3k Views
Hirra Sultan, What you seek is what you see

Written Apr 21, 2016

Well though both are equally important but one is under your control and the other is not.

So what you can do is to work hard. If you succeed, you have yourself to praise. In case you fail you always have luck to blame.

But if you do not work hard even good luck cannot get you through. So why depend on it?

Give your best and the rest is destiny.

640 Views Answer requested by Vipul Gwal

Rufford Pereira, works at Students

Written Jul 25, 2015

You only need hard work in life. Only through consistent hard work you shall be successful.
The definition of Luck according to Webster's Dictionary "a purposeless, unpredictable and uncontrollable force that shapes events
favorably or unfavorably for an individual, group or cause".
So how is uncontrollable force helpful in shaping the events in your life.

829 Views Answer requested by Pawan Asati

Jonathan Thomas, works at Terrible Herbst

Written Jan 6, 2016

Everything is 50/50 chance. Chance of something happening or not happening. Winning the lottery is not 1 and 300,000,000, it's
50/50, you either win or you don't. People who are seen as successful are people who simply keep rolling the dice and they learned
how to get lucky more often, so they are more skilled at getting lucky and that is what success is, a skill at making yourself luckier.

Rolling a dice won't always come up lucky 7, but I can assure you the more you roll it the more 7's you'll get, successful people know
that. Let's say you got a nickel every time you rolled a 7 on a dice, most people would see this as unprofitable but a successful person
would roll it a million times, a regular person a few hundred at best.

Let's

2.4k Views
Prasad Yoganarasimha, Aspiring Entrepreneur

Written Aug 11, 2015

HARD WORK

Let me prove the same to you.

Luck + Hard work = SUCCESS

Hard work = SUCCESS
So will Luck alone result in SUCCESS? Answer is NO

So what does that prove? Hard work is the only thing which can guarantee you SUCCESS.

I believe that hard work in right direction or right purpose is important in life than just hard work to be
SUCCESSFUL.

Many people may be working very hard and yet would not have had their share of success. So they may end up blaming their luck or
fate for the same. Instead they simply need to introspect why their hard work is not materializing and where should they align their
effort for best results.

1k Views View Upvotes

Keith Pieper, Madtech Scientist Since 1996

Written Jul 25, 2011

I read once that luck comes to people who are prepared to capitalize on an opportunity. The more prepared you are for more
opportunities, the greater your chances of getting lucky!

5.2k Views

Sweta Singh, works at Select Source International

Written Nov 27, 2014

How much ever hard you may work , end of the day you need luck to succeed. But, Don't worry. "Luck favours Hard work" . If you
keep on working Hard, one fine day definitely luck favours you and you will succeed.

4.3k Views View Upvotes

John Kilbourn, Work hard to get growth

Written Jul 24, 2015

My belief is hard work. I also believe in luck but think faith is more valuable. Just make sure that your hard work is in a direction
you'd like to be going or the hard work you've put in will be useless to have done. Hard work is more important than luck because
you can see your results, or at least measure your results. Luck can't be seen or measured, just hoped for.

3.4k Views Answer requested by Zeeshan Haider Baloch

Henry Leung

Written Feb 11, 2016

I would say all are important. Because both factors contribute to success. You can't rely on luck only, but so do hard work.

Take public exams for an example. I study extensively for it, doing past papers constantly (and got sick due to fatigue), trying to
review what I had done wrong etc. Hard work is 75% of the formula to success, luck is the other 25%. If you don't work, then you
won't have luck. But sometimes, even if you put full effort, you might not get the results you want or needed to succeed. A lot of
factors can contribute to this - your health, the sudden change in question difficulty/format compare to past examinations or a lot of
factors that are unpredictable. These unpredictable factors can jeopardize your results without even knowing it. I got sick despite
following strict healthy lifestyles and I didn't fare well.

In general, life is very unpredictable and your luck determines how you will fare in the challenges ahead. Like I said, don't depend on
luck too much, because you will fail (No pain, no gain). Putting full effort guarantees that you can weather the oncoming storm but
does not mean that you can come out of the top. If you are not lucky enough, your efforts can be wasted even though you might
deserve all the reward due to your beyond your peers devotion and hard work.

One more thing about hard work is not just being industrious but also being able to be adaptive. If you are too rigid, then your hard
work might not get you anywhere because everything is changing. Being adaptive relates to experience, intelligence or both.

If you lost. Think about it this way: Did you put enough effort or did you tried your best? If yes, you tried your best then you might
have failed due to unforeseen circumstances (you don't control life!) which means bad luck. If you did not, then you will only have
yourselves to blame - you rely too much on luck. Do not use luck as an excuse if you can do better, but don't be too hard on
yourselves if you know that you had put full effort. Another advice here is that when you lost, another formula to success is the
courage to try again. Albert Einstein in history required to apply two times before he could enter university, and he had learning
difficulties in his youth but he doesn't give up. If you give up, you will never recover.

To conclude, hard work can create luck in certain circumstances. Hard work can sometimes defeat luck. But sometimes, luck can
defeat hard work. Remember this, at the end, both matters but another important factor is the willingness to try again.

2k Views

Karamjit Das, I do simple things in a complex way.

Written Jul 31, 2015

To answer in a simple way...
Luck is the result of Hard work.

You can't define what is luck and what is hard work. Both terms are relative. You do what you do. The result will define your luck. If
you are not successful in your work, then you are unlucky. And if you are successful then Cheers!! You are the lucky one among
many people who are also doing 'Hard Work'.

820 Views View Upvotes

Rabia Sultan, Student Scientist who believes that Technology is an art.

Written Jul 23, 2011

Hard work with right attitude.

Luck! yes important but a mystery.
Many times people talk about their colleagues that he/she is lucky. What happens is that consecutive successes generate confidence
and builds right attitude. So things stay good in their life. Even when one feels lucky, nothing is done in shot or short.

4.6k Views

Suraj B. Solanki, Life is Relative..!

Written May 3, 2016

Good question.Term ''Important'' is very relative and subjective .The thing which is important this moment that can not be of any
use next moment .So don't label everything permanently. Rather label it based on purpose and situation.We are living very
mysterious life.There are several things that are not in our Control.In fact we don't even know about several things in our life.But
let's talk about utility.We should do everything that affect our life.We should not miss single opportunity to make our life good and
easy.Luck is nothing but the result of random experiments of one or others.This is what I think .It is not matter of thinking .It is
matter of ignoring.That is the best we can do.Because we can think about known.We can't think about unknown .And even if we do
that then it will only waste our energy and time .We will end up with chaos and random thoughts.Nothing else.Even if luck is made
by god or someone else then it can not be changed by our thinking.Or it can't be known in advance .So better is work on known and
real things.And life can not be good just using hard work.You must have vision and wisdom to direct your hard work.Otherwise
whole hard work will be like a car with no keys to unlock.

464 Views

Niranjan VK, works at Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Private Limited

Written Dec 1, 2014

3.4k Views View Upvotes

Sachin Jain, Growing Engineer

Written Sep 1, 2015

Luck as well Hard work both will payoff . Absense of luck will not give success as well reciprocal to Hard work. Working hard will
get your luck hard increase chances of getting succeed. Imagine if luck was not present or u can say nobody knows about luck . then
everybody would be BILL GATES , AMBANI , TATA , MARK ZUK.. (FB developer ) ... luck is indeed with hard work.. :)

2.6k Views

Thomas Chase, Technical/Business Architect Healthcare - C Level Exec

Written May 3, 2016

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. My belief is if you prepare (work and become proficient at something you're passionate
about) and continually put yourself in situations where opportunities may present themselves the probability of getting "lucky" is
higher.

405 Views
Pallav Gupta, Foodie, Quorious, Romantic, Motivator, Novice Writer

Written Jul 30, 2015

What I believe is that

" The harder you work more luckier you will be"

You can not sit and wait for the life to be lucky on you. But you can work hard and get more opportunity for you. So what you will
choose. Is it luck or hard work.

Obviously luck is as important as hard work. But you can not give importance to luck and sit as it is. Instead giving that importance
to hard work will definitely be lucky on you as then you will have more opportunity opened for you.

590 Views View Upvotes

Kalpesh Kulkarni, works at Nt Yet

Written Apr 2, 2014

Hard work is more important because without hard work luck is worst.
According to me everyone has to do hard work for getting huge success...

4.6k Views View Upvotes

Deepak Raj, studied at Patna University

Written Nov 30, 2014

Harder you work; luckier you get ;)

also, hard-work beats luck when luck does not work hard . . .

2.8k Views View Upvotes

Poojan Khakhar, The present is pregnant with future!

Written Jul 24, 2015

If you believe in luck.. You may not do hard work..! Because you are waiting when luck opens..!

If you believe in hard working then I think luck is not important factor..! Because you have not time to think for luck..!

Iuck is like money..! Paisa khuda nahi hain lekin khuda se kam bhi nahi..!(Money is not God but it isn't less than God)

535 Views

Vijeet Rathi, Student of sports management | Occasional blogger | Voracious reader |

Written Nov 27, 2014

Both, with luck playing its role at some point in time.

2.6k Views View Upvotes

Anonymous

Written Aug 9, 2015

My dad always tells me this :

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

- Ray Kroc.

For the record,

Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American businessman and philanthropist. He joined McDonald's in 1954 or
1955 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world.
386 Views
 Duke Honey, Need of knowledge

Written Nov 27, 2014

According to me both are important bcoz if u don't have a better luck then doing hard work is work is worst... So firstly we should
beleive in luck then go for hard work.....

2.5k Views View Upvotes

Yevgeniy Frenklakh

Written Dec 14, 2013

Just read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He gives the best explanation of "luck" and how to get more of
it.

3.9k Views

Michael Cohn, Ph.D., Clinical Neuropsychologist, but forget all that, since you all know more than I do.

Written Nov 30, 2014

I think both are important.

2.5k Views View Upvotes

Related Questions

What life lesson did you learn the hard way?

Whether the life is depended on hard work or by luck?

Why do some people have to work so hard in life while others can effortlessly succeed?

Do you believe in hard work or in luck?

If there ever happens to be face-off between hard work and luck, who will win?

Is hard work really that important for success or does luck have a bigger role than hard work?

I have no belief in "luck". I would rather do the hard work at less cost. Am I right?

"The harder you work the luckier you will be." Should I believe in this or does luck have nothing to do with hard
work?

When you achieve success, how much do you think is luck and how much is hard work?
 Is it important to have a time schedule for getting a successful life or just doing hard work as much as one can do
is enough?

How will you define hard work in daily life?

What is important of our luck in our life?

What determines success: luck or hard work?

What is the important work in our life?

When were the times in your life when luck overcame hard work?

.

What makes you successful? Luck, Hard work, Focus? Or Something Else!

Published on October 21, 2014

LikeWhat makes you successful? Luck, Hard work, Focus? Or Something Else!

12

Comment

ShareShare What makes you successful? Luck, Hard work, Focus? Or Something Else!

3
Amit Airon
FollowAmit Airon
Regional Property Supervisor | TCS (Tax Credit Specialist)
Have you ever wondered why or how people like Michael Phelps or Warren Buffet became what
they have become? And when you do, what comes to mind as possible reasons? Mostly I hear
people saying things like Luck, Hard Work, Focus, and/or Dedication. Hmm, it makes sense but
really is that all? Let's look at them one by one.
Luck: This is the favorite one! Whenever we look at successful people, we call them 'lucky!'.
But what is luck? Is it just a chance, a good fortune? If yes, then how do people get repeated
successes? If I were to say that luck is important too, then I would define luck as a confluence of
perseverance, prospects and preference. Opportunities present themselves every day to every
person. Do they not? But only a person who recognizes them and seizes them without delay, gets
to convert these opportunities to their preferred outcomes. And we very comfortably tag them
'lucky'. However, a close look reveals that only those people who persevere to look for
prospective opportunities to exploit become lucky. Hey, but this is no rocket science! Still why
most of the ordinary folks are not able to do so? Why?
Hard work: "...No, No, it's not luck, its Hard work or rather Smart work...". This is the
answer of most people who don't believe in luck. Malcolm Gladwell argues in his
book, Outliers, that if someone spends 10,000 hours towards any activity, then he can become

a world-class expert in it. Or in other words, 10,000 hours

of hard work is required to be extremely successful. And I am sure he is correct. No success is
achieved without hard work or sweat. Even the child prodigies became world-class experts in
their fields, only after working at it for a long time. Mozart had his most famous compilations
much late in his career. Sachin Tendulkar was at his best only when he was 24-year-old, although
he had started showed brilliance at a young age of 16. I am yet to find a single successful person
who hasn't done his share of handwork. But, why is putting 10,000 hours so difficult? It is only 5
years of work! Still, why do most of ordinary people give up sooner? Why?
Focus and Dedication: Maybe it is the lack of focus and dedication. Often people are not
focused and they stop. Hard work without focus leads to only a sinusoidal performance curve
with lots of peaks and valleys. It doesn't yield a consistently improving performance. So focus
and dedication should be the key to success. Well, we all know the importance of focus and
dedication since our childhood, yet most of us find it difficult to maintain it over a long period of
time? Do over achievers have a special brain or some additional nerves to keep them focused?
No! Neurologically, most high achievers have similar brains as the ordinary people. Then why?
Secret Ingredient to Success: All the above mentioned things are required for success
but they are not sufficient.There is one secret ingredient to the gravy that brings flavor to the
complete dish and make it yummy! And that ingredient is INNER DRIVE. Every individual
has at least one strong Inner Drive. And then they have many external drives. The individuals for
whom the external drive syncs well with the true inner drive, achieving success becomes a
reality. The unfortunate part is that most ordinary folks spend their whole life without realizing
their true inner drive.
Now what is this Inner Drive? We often use words like Passion, Obsession, Mania to
talk about Inner Drive. I chose to call this yearning as INNER DRIVE, to clearly differentiate it
from the external drivers. For some people this inner drive is to connect with other people, for
others it is money. For some it is knowledge, and for others it is relationships. For some it is
leadership, and for others it is creation. Those who understand their inner drive and live their life
with a yearning to fulfill it, become super successful. You can look at any successful person and
you will see a very strong inner drive which led to his success. Be it Mother Teresa to help the
needy, or Mahatma Gandhi to strive for truth and fairness. There are even examples of successful
people who didn't achieve stardom till they stumble upon their inner drive. Martha Stewart is one
such example. She was an average stockbroker before she became a super successful writer and a
TV personality.
Identifying the Inner Drive: It is not so difficult to identify your inner drive. You have
to ask yourself without feeling pressure from the society to be "politically correct", what do you
really want? What is the one thing that matters to you the most? This usually is the prime reason
behind all your actions. The litmus test to know your true inner drive, is to ask yourself what is
that one thing, that if you don't get, then getting anything else seems meaningless. Once you
identify your inner drive, you will notice that the activities which fulfills your inner drive, brings
you most happiness and satisfaction.
How Inner Drive works? Just knowing the inner drive is not enough. Successful people
make trade-offs in day-to-day actions to align their lives with their inner drive. They eliminate all
non-aligned external drives from their lives. Be it Mary Kom or Michael Phelps. You will see
that in their life they made several trade offs. You don't even need to look that far. If you observe
the successful people (not necessarily famous) around you, you will identify that they have one
inner drive which is guiding their every decision. If you see a successful person driven towards
becoming a millionaire, then he would often not do anything which would not help him become
a millionaire. People who lead the life of education and research, often exclude themselves from
other distractions. Successful* people who love family and relationships the most, often lead a
happy life full of friends and family but do not usually become filthy rich (unless it's an
inheritance!). (*Success doesn't only mean material success. It is true happiness)
 Ultimate Success: Knowingly and
unknowingly we often do things that are in line with our inner drive, along with other things as
well. The important thing to note is that successful people choses to do only those things that are
in line with their inner drive, and ordinary people end up doing random things. And quite often,
ordinary people end up spending their lives driven by external forces or drives which are not in
line with inner drive, and live a stressful and unhappy life.
If you want to be successful, identify your inner drive, make the relevant trade-offs. When your
inner drive becomes the enabler, then the combination of hard work, focus, and luck becomes
possible and success and happiness is achieved.

- Amit

P.S. Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your feedback and comments.

==================================================
===============================

I have been thinking about this question since a long time. How much percentage luck and how much percentage hard work
play in our life success? I am sure that at any point of your life, you would have looked at a person and said How lucky
He/She is. I wish I was like him/her.
In order to understand this topic better, I began to read various personality development books and started talking with
people regarding this. This article is about what I learned from them and what conclusion I had come upon.

A one sentence answer to our question is given in the book, the monk who sold his Ferrari, What is luck, my friend? Julian
replied kindly. It is nothing more than the marriage of preparation with opportunity. As we see, Preparation plays a vital
important role in life success. When opportunity comes to a person who is prepared, he can take the opportunity. This is
what Julian Mantle considers as luck. So if the luck knocks an unprepared mind, there is a high probability that he missed
the opportunity and hence misses his luck.

When posed this question to my friend Shyam, he told me Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny. When a
person is determined to succeed in his life, the whole world wants him to win. Lady Luck is greedy. It supports success. It
goes with those who do hard work.

The nature silently prays for the person who does hard work and lady luck cant ignore him for long. A better word for Luck is
opportunity. A person, who wants to learn more, who wants to accomplish something great in life, who focuses on only
realizing his dreams, is bound to succeed and the right opportunity will definitely knock his door.

If a person believes only in luck, he just buys lottery tickets. He just waits. He will always be like that gambler in Las Vegas,
staying at the roulette wheel. But if u do hard work, and luck comes, u never miss that luck.

Arun Vijay, put the answer in this way You need to do had work without believing in luck. If you do hard work, and luck
doesnt come your way, you dont need to worry since you have only believed in hard work and not luck. Hard work includes
ability and skills.

You should have right attitude to make this happen. If you wish to fly, and you do hard work day and night without working on
to acquiring the necessary skills required flying, it is almost guaranteed that luck will be reluctant to come to your foot step.

It is truth that there might be many people who got success just of sheer luck. But since exceptions are not rules, I
personally believe that we should not take these people as our role model since they took a bit of short cut to reach success.
Short cut dont always lead a person to success.

What I understand on this topic is that, we are supposed to do our home work without depending on the luck factor. We
should not be like a person who buys a lottery tickets and waits till luck blesses him. He may end up spending his life on this.
We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as its doing to help us. This is called the
principle of favorability or beginners luck.

If you are a student, we can do our best to concentrate on our studies and do as much hard work as we can. If you are an
employee, give your best to your job. If you have a dream to follow, start immediately on it. Luck waits for no one. Before it
comes, be prepared for it.

Author's Bio:

Sijith Salim - aka- Mind Gardener, is a Peak Performance Coach, NLP Master practitioner, Career Mentor, Author, Speaker
and Fitness/Nutrition Expert.

He is a Peak Performance Expert in Selfgrowth.com. http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/sijith-salim

He also focus on body language, building rapport, mind reading, hand writing analysis, going deep into our mind and its
secrets, and skills for effective interpersonal communication.

Sijith is the Founder of personal achievement and peak performance website http://SuccessValley.com.