| Hard work is absolutely an essential requirement. "He worked for years before achieving overnight success." For many the secret of success seems to be something like: 0. Pick the right thing(s) to work on (ideally the thing that will result in #3) 1. Work really hard (ideally starting with as many advantages as possible - wealth, family, connections, safety nets, etc.) so you can 2. Buy as many lottery tickets as possible (ideally rigging the game in your favor if possible) to improve the likelihood that you will eventually 3. Win the lottery This may seem flippant, but if you don't achieve #2, you're much less likely to achieve #3. Since #3 is so luck dependent, you need to increase your luck - which means increase your chances of possibly winning - usually by increasing the number of trials, or by rigging the game somehow. However in most of these games (lottery tickets, startups, etc.) there are many more losers than winners. |