[mindcrime]

While hard work is important, their success was also partially due to luck and the work of others, and they should never forget that.

Agreed. My problem is with this meme that seems to have become pervasive over the last year or two, which seems to posit that, effectively, everything comes down to luck. Clearly the actual truth is somewhere between the extremes of "it's all luck" and "it's all hard work". My response here is a reaction to what I perceive as a swinging of the pendulum towards the "it's all luck" mindset, to a degree that I think is damaging.

[chc]

I think the thing is that the luck is much more make-or-break than the work. Luck can make how much work you've done irrelevant, but no amount of work can make luck irrelevant. For example, the "cash me ousside" girl didn't do any work, but now is more successful than I am by sheer weird luck. Meanwhile, lots of people have put in stupendous amounts of work and still ended up with bad results just because they were unlucky (remember, despite being beloved of the Internet nowadays, Nikola Tesla died penniless and alone).

[true_religion]

You have to both be prepared to take advantage of a lucky opportunity and be ready to work hard to maximize it. Doing neither means failure.