[ternaryoperator]

His point is essentially the one developed at length by Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers." Namely, that great successes are almost always dependent on a uniquely fortunate set of events that the person is able to exploit well, rather than their success being the result of genius.

[randomdata]

If two random people were given equally fortunate sets of events in their lives, would they both exploit those events to reach the same level of success? Or could it be said that genius is recognizing those fortunate events when they come your way?

[hpguy]

They wouldn't, because at least gene has its role. Life events + genes + free will => destiny. The role of the first two are pretty self-evident. I'm not sure about the role of free will, if it exists.