[navigator01]

Survivorship bias is kind of bullshit, I mean luck does play a role in success, but the longer you work at something, as long as you have a good idea/plan of attack/all the other traits needed to succeed in a field, the less luck will play a role in determining your success. Luck matters less and less over longer timescales, as long as you keep doing the right things.

[Zapperino]

Possessing those positive traits you speak of is also a matter of luck: the upbringing of an individual has been proven to affect one's ability to make correct decisions. Effort counts, and it counts a lot, but let's not pretend that we can override causality with it. That's why we have things like welfare and social nets.

[arjunmenon1899]

Absolutely. What is more critical than luck is the effort one puts in to figure out the right things to do.

Sometimes it takes a small amount of time to figure out, sometimes a while. What matters is that one keeps at it.