[lacey]

How about:

- investing time in things that ultimately do not pay off

- taking risks

- lots of small poor choices that add up

- bad luck (yes, to some extent you can make your own luck but sometimes things are outside of your control)

Honestly I find his list pretty poorly thought through, especially in comparison to the recent blog post by Sam Altman: http://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-be-successful

[dwd]

Luck is making the better decision in a timely manner based on incomplete knowledge where each option appears equally valid.

However, people generally are poor at calculating probability combined with risk/reward and simply make bad decisions.

And sometimes, all choices lead to bad outcomes.

[Blackstone4]

>Luck is making the better decision in a timely manner based on incomplete knowledge

What?! So going through a green light and getting hit by someone going through a red is a bad decision?

Getting cancer is a bad decision or bad luck?!

[dwd]

Seems his list was missing an important one: Not playing the victim.

Yes, sometimes other people will cause you harm. Could you have avoided it, probably not as you can't always predict the future.

How you move on from a bad situation is your decision. Wallowing in self-pity because the world has done you wrong is a good way to never succeed.

As an aside: your chances of getting a particular cancer can be affected by your lifestyle choices so you can make better decisions to avoid it.

[jasonmcalacanis]

This might be one of the biggest issues in America today. We have a seemingly large number of folks, or perhaps a small number of highly vocal ones on social media, that believe the system is so rigged against them and that they have no chance of improving their lot in life.

At the same time as this pessimism has permeated America, a global, friction-free marketplace for services and products has emerged that anyone can tap into: the internet and mobile phones.

This network is not only available to all, it also hosts the keys to the kingdom, with every single skill and clever strategy for building these products and services unlocked, for free, for everyone, on YouTube, Coursera, etc.

That's the disconnect I'm concerned about... so many people in America are giving up on the American dream, while other countries are copying it (i.e. China).

[apacheCamel]

> How you move on from a bad situation is your decision. Wallowing in self-pity because the world has done you wrong is a good way to never succeed.

I agree with this but it doesn't have to do with luck. You could pick yourself up and keep going after a stint of bad luck but if you continue to have bad luck then you will still have a hard time succeeding.

[imtringued]

I regret not abandoning my blood related family to find a better one when I was a 2 week old infant.

[johnmarcus]

here here. Very well said.