[wilsonnb]

> Having some talent at hiring and managing people helped.

Luck.

> Spending my teenage years writing clever little programs in 6502 assembly language on my Commodore 64 instead of smoking weed and partying helped.

Lucky enough to grow up with access to a computer in a time when that wasn't common.

> Having a strong knack for math and computer science helped.

Luck again.

[refurb]

You argument is not a worthwhile one.

No matter the example, you could always narrow it down to "luck".

"Lucky you didn't get run over by a car"

"Lucky you didn't get cancer and die"

"Lucky WW3 didn't start and destroy your country"

What's the point?

[wilsonnb]

The percentage of people that had access to a Commodore 64 was relatively small, so a person had a high chance of not having access. That means it was lucky to have had access.

The percentage of people that are killed in a car accident is relatively small, so a person who is not killed in a car accident doesn't need to be particularly lucky to avoid being killed in a car accident.

Yes, luck is a factor in everything, but the role that luck plays in everything is not the same.

[frockington]

All of those are skills and trait the poster has, not luck. Your logic is concluding that the poster drinking enough water to survive is luck

[wilsonnb]

My logic concludes no such thing.

Assuming you believe that genetics plays a role in our skills and traits, then luck also plays a role. A person has no control over their genetics.

A person also has no control over the economic status of their parents, the area of the world they are born in, whether they receive proper nutrition as a child, what kind of education they get as a child, and an infinite number of other factors that contribute to whether they will end up rich or poor.

Yes, hard work is important to becoming wealthy in most cases, but there are so many factors that people dismiss when they say that luck has a small role.

[joaomacp]

Then what isn't luck? Everyone reading this thread is lucky, since they have access to the internet, and were lucky enough not to be hit by a car and killed before in their lives.

You can still improve your chances substantially.

[icedchai]

Are you saying everything is luck? come on...

My dad taught me about investing when I was a teenager. I actually applied this for the next 20+ years. Was this luck?

[wilsonnb]

Yes, that is quite obviously luck. People don't get to choose your parents. You were lucky enough to have parents that taught you about investing at an early age.

Hard work and luck are both parts of success. Humans just have a tendency to downplay the luck aspect.

[simantel]

Yes. You were lucky to be born into a family with money to invest and to grow up with a father around. Not everyone has those advantages.

[refurb]

Not everyone has those advantages, but many people do and never get rich.

That would suggest it's much more than just luck.

[wilsonnb]

I'm not saying it's all luck. Hard work is important. Luck is also important. It's pointless to argue over which is more important in my opinion.

However, a lot of successful people (including the person I was originally responding to) downplay the role that luck plays and exaggerate the role that hard work plays.

[batty_alex]

Yes, you had a Dad that could teach you how to invest at a young age. Also, you had a Dad that had extra money to invest.