This essay first appeared in my newsletter Sign up here if interested in Unf^cking Education.

---

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.

Luck isn’t magic.
It’s often the result of invisible effort — showing up again and again when no one’s watching.

The founders who “got lucky” usually:

• Kept knocking on doors even after twenty rejections.
• Pitched 100 investors before one said yes.
• Built relationships years before they needed them.

Hard work doesn’t eliminate luck.
It multiplies your chances of catching it.

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

Over-glorifying luck has created a dangerous myth for young people.

It feeds fatalism:

If success is all luck, why even try?

If the game is random, what’s the point of working hard?

Telling people “it’s all luck” sounds humble — but it quietly and insidiously stunts and kills ambition.

Here’s a better message for the next generation:

Success is a rigged game — it’s rigged in favor of those who:

• Work harder.
• Learn faster.
• Stay longer.

Irrespective of your age, color, etc, if you are willing to work, you have a MASSIVE edge.
You’re not betting on a lottery ticket.
You’re the house.

---

BTW, 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