[chrisbennet]

The phrase "The harder I work, the luckier I get." is often spoken by those who believe in the "Just World" theory. It allows them to believe that their success is due to their own "goodness" and conversely, that others who aren't as successful must not be as "good".

In reality, luck plays a huge part. When you see the hard working landscapers around your building some morning, you should be thinking "That could be me if I hadn't won the ovarian lottery."

[tsax]

That's tautological. He's lucky because he's lucky. But if you meant that genetic inheritance plays a large role in success, then obviously I agree.

[chrisbennet]

Winning the "ovarian lottery" means you were born with advantages that you didn't earn. Someone born in the US, has a huge advantage over someone born in a 3rd world country. Luck probably plays a bigger role than hard work (in success) due to these non-earned advantages. Many successful people would rather believe that their hard work was the reason for the success than admit their good fortune.

For example: I don't doubt the the Winklevoss twins are hard workers [you don't get into the Olympics without hard work] but I think it would be reaching to ascribe their current station in life to just hard work.

[tsax]

Working hard is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. Like Patrick said, working very hard at digging ditches is not going to land you in a C-suite, obviously, but very few people end up successful WITHOUT working hard.