On the great How I Built This podcast, Guy Raz, always closes by asking how much of an entrepreneur’s success was luck vs hard work/smarts

The “right” thing to say is that it was luck.

It hits the right humility notes.

And then people drop all this convoluted word salad about being born in the lucky sperm club and being born at the right time in the right country blah blah blah.

Sure they were but so were many others and yet these people overachieved.

I wish more people just said it was their hard work and smarts (what they likely actually believe)

Chalking up success to luck (which can be manufactured cuz of effort) makes entrepreneuring seem mystical and accidental

A message that thoughtful hard work drove success is a more attainable and aspiring msg to give to future entrepreneurs.

I posted this on Twitter and 2 of my favorite responses are below.

First one:

If a random guy off the street asks me how I became successful, it’s humble to say, “I got lucky.”
If my kid asks me how they can be successful, I won’t say a word about luck. I’ll tell them to work their ass off.

– Nick Auf

And here’s the 2nd one:

Entrepreneurship is not a lottery ticket, it’s poker. Skill & hard work matters.

– Greg Raiz

Hard work should be celebrated.

If you’re a young person who can work hard and enjoys it, you have a huge advantage.