[encoderer]

Regarding only your first point... I can't agree with that.

Aside from the lotto and other truly marginal edge cases, I'd say that hard work is not sufficient for success but it is required.

That is, if you take 100 successful people, you'll have 100 who needed some luck to get where they are. And of those, you'll have 99 who also had to work their ass off.

[ThomPete]

Many people work hard and never make it.

Many people build great products and never make it.

Many people build a great business but it doesn't last.

Luck doesn't determine whether you are able to make it but it does often have a lot to do with whether you get the chance.

[WalterBright]

If you don't work hard, don't build great products, and don't build a great business, you aren't giving luck much of a chance to help you.

[ThomPete]

If you have a great business you are by definition successful so that makes no sense.

With regards to the other sure but none of them will guarantee you a great business.

[Guvante]

My apologies, I did not at all mean to imply the opposite of that. Hard work is certainly required to succeed.

However most people talking about the American dream are talking about it being sufficient, which is what I was talking against.

Statistically you don't get lucky and get rich (guess what happens to lottery winners a year after they win most the time?) and you rarely work hard and get rich. You can get a little lucky and live a good life working hard, and you can get really lucky, work really hard, and get rich.