Success: Hard work or Luck?
I have received a couple of requests to do an article about success. Is success dependant on hard work or is it all just chance? I spent some time thinking through these concepts and have developed a three colour theory on success. Firstly, we need to be on the same page with our use of the terms ‘Success’, ‘Hard Work’ and ‘Luck’ – all three of these terms have a huge number of applications and meanings. For the purpose of this article, here are the definitions:
Success = Achieving a personal goal to do, have or be something
Hard work = Application of personal energy, effort and time in the sense that it requires some degree of personal sacrifice or exertion.
Luck = Chance or random coincidence outside of your direct personal control, or if you insist – an act of God.
The definition of success here is the critical factor. Bashir, who asked me this question, used the following example: two people with similar backgrounds, with the same education and of the same cultural and language grouping are employed at the same time in a large company. After 5 years one of them has a middle management position and earns double the salary of the other who is still in a clerical position ‘at the bottom of the ladder’. What made the one more successful than the other?
My immediate question to Bashir is, “Who are we assuming to be the more ’successful’ of the two?” to which Bashir might reply, “Huh? The first of course! The one with the position and the money!!” And that’s exactly the problem with how we see success. If our personal goal is to make a million dollars, we tend to rate the success of everyone around us by that same goal, i.e. Carol hasn’t made a million dollars so she’s not as successful as Bruce. But according to my definition of “Achieving a personal goal”, Carol may be entirely successful at her goal of ironing the laundry for the day, and in Bashir’s example, the middle manager is only ’successful’ in the context of a personal goal that goes something like, “I want to be a manager and earn double my current income in the next five years”. For all we know, the clerical guy might be more successful if his personal goal was to have a simple 8 to 5 job with low responsibility and no take home work so that he could spend more time enjoying his wife and kids.
As you can see, answering the question ‘Is success hard work or luck?’ has a lot to do with what someone is trying to be successful AT. I propose that luck and hard work play different roles depending on the context of success. The rules change depending on what we’re talking about in the same way that Newtonian physics doesn’t seem to apply at a molecular level, for which we use a different set of rules which we call Quantum physics.
I propose three ‘contexts’ for success: The Red Zone, The Blue Zone, and the Twilight Zone.
In the Red Zone our success is entirely dependent on us doing something about it. Unless a bolt of lightning escapes the twilight zone to thwart our attempts at success, we will achieve our goal through at least some sweat and effort. Of course the whole notion of working ’smarter not harder’ can also apply here, but nevertheless, work is required. Examples of achieving Red Zone success are:
- Having a clean home. The dishes aren’t going to wash themselves no matter how lucky you are or how much God loves you.
- Becoming a novelist. You’re going to have to write a book to achieve this, there’s no getting around it.
In the Blue Zone our success is not entirely up to us, but it’s not entirely out of our influence either. In this zone our own efforts tend to improve our probability for success even if they don’t ensure it. Examples include:
- Recovering after a car accident injury. Our own desire to recover and subsequent interventions (hard work) will have a positive effect on the success of our recovery but we cannot determine the ultimate specifics of our recovery. There may be unknown neural or spinal complications outside of our control which have countering effects, thereby ‘lowering’ our chances of success.
- Getting employed. You can go to a job interview and say all the right things and wear the right clothes, but someone else decides if you’re the right candidate for the job. Performing well at the interview will ‘increase your chances’ for success but not guarantee your position.
- Winning the lotto. Even though the probabilities are almost entirely against this, success still requires human intervention in the form of buying a ticket. This is very close to Twilight zone success but still in the blue zone.
In the Twilight zone our success has (seemingly) nothing to do with our own efforts at all. At first glance it would seem that this type of success is entirely random or accidental. Examples include:
- Inheriting a fortune. You didn’t ask for it – you didn’t work for it – you just got born in the right place at the right time.
- Sudden death. You’re Donald Trump about to complete your latest hotel venture and your helicopter crashes to the ground or you’re struck by lightning. Not your choice, but you have to live with it… or die with it in this case.
- You get ‘found’ by a talent scout. There are millions of really beautiful girls in the world but some talent agent travels to Morocco and finds a village girl who he takes back to the US and turns into the world’s next big supermodel. Her beautiful friend is still collecting water from a dusty desert well. Hard work? I think not.
There are any number of theories that attempt to ‘explain’ the results of the twilight zone including God, a universal ‘force’, fate, karma, etc. but for the purposes of this article we will leave these ideas alone, except to agree that things happen to us that we don’t control.
These zones could be represented with two circles, the Red and Twilight zones, intersecting at the blue zone as in the diagram below:
Any personal goal or ambition we have will fall into one of these ‘zones’. Understanding which zone the goal is ‘in’ is important for understanding why we regularly fail or succeed in achieving those goals. For example, someone who constantly feels like a ‘failure’ in their job searching because they have a misplaced belief that they don’t need to ‘do’ anything except ‘wait on God’ might find themselves wondering why they never succeed. Job hunting is a Blue zone activity which becomes more inevitable the more effort/energy is applied to the search. Then again someone might spend days and days doing a rain dance in the Sahara in dry season and wonder why their ‘efforts’ are not being rewarded, i.e. attempting to increase twilight zone success. I will write more on these ideas in future articles.
I want to focus here on the Blue zone – an area that is not unlike a strategic war game, where regular good tactics usually overcome the ups and downs of bad dice rolling. My sense (untested at this point) is that some people are more skilled at understanding the probabilities at play in their success and the ingredients required for managing those probabilities and improving their chances at success. So let’s consider Bashir’s question about the middle manager and the clerk. I will assume that the two people in question had a similar personal goal – to get promoted in the company and earn lots of money – one succeeded and the other ‘failed’. This goal is clearly a Blue zone goal: their success, although not entirely in their own hands, will be influenced by various factors (I’ll use the term ingredients) including attitude, communication skills, work hours, problem solving and other personal sacrifices or efforts by the individuals involved.
Here are some of the ingredients I believe increase the probability of success:
- Perseverance: Often the probabilities increase simply because, in time, the competition moves out or moves on, leaving you in a better position to “fill the gap”. Giving up too soon negates this principle.
- Knowledge: This increases your ability to apply your efforts wisely and play a more tactical war game. Reading and practice are critical here.
- Resources: It goes without saying that many probability reducers go away when you throw a little money at them.
- Self belief: Low self esteem is sure to lower your chances at success. Self belief influences every thought and action of your life.
- Courage: The ability to suppress terror and take action despite fear of loss, rejection, humiliation, conflict etc. is a key ingredient for success.
- Relationships: Developing a strong network of allies will weigh the dice in your favour.
- Communication: You’re more likely to attract the resources and people you need for success if you have good communication skills. People also take you more seriously.
These are just a few ingredients for improving your odds in the Blue zone. Of course all the luck in the world won’t help you if you throw double 1’s, or a bolt of lightning leaves the twilight zone and zaps you, but because we have no control over these mishaps of luck it makes sense to apply your efforts to improving your odds until success becomes inevitable.
My good friend Basil suggested that the Blue zone is where the good stuff happens – the creative stuff – the innovations. I agree with him. I think we’ve all been zapped by a few unexpected ‘acts of god’ in our lives, and when that happens we tend to be scared of going too close to the twilight zone and prefer to scuttle around in the Red zone where things are entirely predictable and ‘risk free’. You may find that your ‘impossible dreams’ are not so improbable when you start applying some of the ingredients I have suggested. Remember, to win the lotto you have to buy a ticket – and although I don’t respect gambling because of the insane odds, I think some of the so called ‘risks’ we’re so afraid to take have very respectable odds when it’s all broken down.
Please send your comments. I’m especially interested to hear what you think are the factors that influence the odds in the Blue zone.
It’s interesting how people measure success. Many, like Bashir, relate success to making the most amount of money possible, and climbing the corporate ladder to the highest position. I was once in that camp, and did well in the corporate world, reaching the highest position possible for me in my company (head of department) and enjoying a nice 6 figure salary. But although I had reached my goal, which then meant to me that I was successful, I was miserable in my job. With higher positions come higher salaries, true, but also more responsibility, more accountability, and in my case, more hours spent at work.
I came to realize that to me, success equals happiness. So I left that job and started a home-based internet business. I don’t make as much as I used to, but I make enough to pay my bills, put something away for retirement, and buy a few gadgets and go out on the town from time to time. What’s become much more important to me than money is time. I have much more time to spend with my family, and to do the leisure things I enjoy. I could make more money if I wanted to put more time into the business, but at this point in my life, free time is a lot more valuable to me than money. And I consider myself very successful, because I’m very happy with my situation.
Hey Deon
Just read “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell who deals with a similar concept. Have you read it?
Malcolm Gladwell has done a study of success in his book “Outliers”. The sum total is that success is not dictated by hard work and drive alone, but by a combination of factors some of which are WELL beyond your control (e.g. genetics, family history, location of birth, even time of year of birth). Well worth a read.
His first book, “The Tipping Point”, which talks about how some trends take off and some don’t, is also excellent and relates to Deon’s point of relationships: certain people are great networkers, with a large number of associates. Knowing these type of people, or even being one yourself, can help give you access to opportunities – being in the right place at the right time.
Nice post, Deon. Enjoyed the read.
This is an excellent post, Deon. I would add that one of the things that would boost your probability of success is that you need to be very clear about what it is you want. In my experience, rather than simply having a goal like “I want to earn R50 000 a month”, it is much more useful to imagine, and even write down what your life will look like when you are earning R50 000 a month. And you need to be specific. For instance:
- I will be working as a professional model/IT Consultant/Donald Trump’s personal advisor…
- When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I will do is meditate/make breakfast/feed my goldfish…
– My place of work will be in the Bahamas/at an office in JHB/on my personal yacht…
… and so on.
I personally went through this exercise when I was looking for a new job, and for some reason, I had what seemed like a “twilight zone” experience and within 6 weeks my dream job arrived. Of course, this was after I had actually made some effort to update my CV and post it on the internet, let my contacts know I was in the market and so on.
I think the key thing is to clearly envision, and then act. Both are essential. There are those who say that visualization affects how “The Universe” responds to us (a la “The Secret”), and maybe this is so – but I doubt it. I suspect that visualization techniques actually allow us to recognize opportunities that match our desires when they present themselves. The “acting” part is obvious, I think, and ties in with your “Ingredients” for success. Also, I think one needs to start doing those things that you can that match your “Dream Life”.
For instance, if you have put some thought into what your life as a supermodel will look like, you will be more likely to notice that ad by a Modeling School in your local rag. Furthermore, committing to regular visits to the beauty parlour and daily workouts will mean that you are also more likely to mould your face body into the lithe, lissom frame that will appeal to Fashion and Beauty editors…
Hi Deon, firstly-good article.
I write as I think so no offense intended and if I used the wrong words or grammar or what ever then go and read something else.
So here I go.
If I can use your example of the person that wants to win the lotto, yes the person needs to purchase a lotto ticket, however there is a step that needs to be decided on firstly and that is do I want to play lotto. ‘And the word ‘want to’ relates back to a dream or a goal that needs to be put in place and then acted upon. However there is more to the acting part then just standing up.
The last couple of years I’ve been working on a Performance Coaching Model that helps me in my personal life and also clients in the sense of daily actions and reaching goals in life.
The model is formulated from a few books I’ve been reading, the first one being “The inner game of Tennis – Tim Callway”. This book is where the discipline of coaching started.
So it starts of with the POTENTIAL of an individual. The word potential states that we as humans have the potential of being, doing and/or having anything in life, not limiting ourselves to our historical paradigms(as you wrote: Believing in yourself). However there is a few subcategories under your POTENTIAL, and the first one is to have DREAMS/GOALS in place(written down), so – How badly do you want it?
And this is where everything starts – yes, the two individuals have the same education, language and ethnic background etc.However the one might have been from a relative successful and driven family and the other might come from a workers class family where mediocre is enough and this cause them to ‘not want to’ go further in life.
The next two sub-categories to look at are: 1) Knowledge(as mentioned) What to do? 2) Skills – How to do it? Two very important points to consider when writing down your goals. Do I know what to do and how to do it? You might want to be a doctor, then you need some knowledge around the subject and you need some kind of skill. Its not just “take a disprin and call me in morning” scenario.
And then the last point under POTENTIAL is the ATTITUDE (You must WANT TO DO IT?). Everything in life is connected to this thing/word called attitude. Maybe the clerk didn’t want to be a manager(as mentioned).
However the biggest issue to discuss is the INTERFERENCES/BARRIERS that stop us from performing to our potential and these are things like: fear, boredom, anger, frustration, lack of confidence(that originate from the lack of knowledge), haphazard and the biggest one I believe is procrastination. If you can get rid of your interferences then you can start to perform optimally within your sphere of expertise.
You will most probably find that for example: if you put the clerk into a bushveld scenario looking after wild animals then he/she will excel just as quickly in his work environment as the other person in the managerial position because you will now find that this is what the clerk wants to do(back to attitude).
So to summarize: I believe that people are not successful, I even want to go as far as saying that the word success doesn’t mean anything. I rather want to believe that people perform within their circle of control and portrays a feeling of success(accomplishment). My suggestion is to anybody reading this comment, start focusing on your goals and dreams and then start working towards it and then in your personal capacity you will find success(accomplishment). These accomplishments can’t always be reached by yourself as self discipline also plays a big role in ’success’, get a personal coach to assist you with this, contact Deon to help you or if he is busy call me.
Easier said…..
Regards
Henk van der Kruit
henk@vanderkruit.co.za
http://www.vanderkruit.co.za
http://www.henkvanderkruit.wordpress.com
This is great Deon, am happy about this post, I must say.
Let me quickly note that my illustration about the career growth thing, as an example for success is not necessarily “my own” definition for success, it was a mere example.
I remember saying…”what factor should one attribute to his/her success (depending on however it is defined). Could we even say that success have the same definition to everybody?”, and from one of your points (in which I agree), the element of success is different for individuals.
Like you always say Deon, discussions like this are not intended to “tell” what is right and what is wrong, but to challenge the minds and brains on how to view (and act on) certain philosophies of life. In this, i feel challenged.
Nick and Penny made some vital points: “…success equals happiness…I have much more time to spend with my family, and to do the leisure things” [Nick].
“…rather than simply having a goal like “I want to earn R50 000 a month”, it is much more useful to imagine, and even write down what your life will look like when you are earning R50 000 a month”[Penny]. These are points that should not be ignored.
However, I think people should measure their goals in life relative to their interest and target (putting their efforts into consideration), and not relative to other people’s achievements. For we are one separate individual, and we have different opportunities. Our goals are also different, to reiterate this, and that is why it is very important to determine, first, “what do we really want to achieve”. A builder does not just start mounting bricks without having a plan of what he intend to build.
I know that more ideas will still come through people’s comments on this. I look forward to reading them. Good job Deon
Deon thanks for a great article and very valid thoughts that we all need to understand in our busy lives today.
You asked for feedback on factors that influence the blue zone and I believe Les and Penny came up with the ingredients of Networking and clarity to which I agree on both accounts. Nick and I seem to come from the same school of thought in regards to the definition of ’success’ and Bash always seems to strike a chord within me with his intuitive questions and answers.
I had a little trouble combining all of the ideas that Henk put forth in his post but focused on his initial wording of ‘want to’ and it echoes with my new years resolution of ‘finding my passion/bliss’. Instead of ‘want to’ or ‘desire’ I believe that a persons ‘Passion’ or ‘bliss’ will ultimately affect their blue zone as much if not more than any other ingredient for the following reasons.
When a person does something that is a passion, they overlook things such as fatigue, discomfort, even pain to a certain extent.
The act of partaking in the event that is giving them this bliss is enough of a motivational factor to neglects feelings of how good they are at it, or what others perception of them or their act is and moreover how much money they make out of it as they will usually do it as long as they can get by comfortably and more importantly ‘feel’ the passion/bliss, I believe you were once in this ‘Nirvana’.
When passion drives a person to wake up and is the motivation for them to ‘work’ as many philosophers, and motivators and feel good bashers have said IT IS NO LONGER WORK. There are no risks when you passionately ‘open your new restaurant’, risk infers that you can choose a safer option but decided on that particular one, with passion, there is no other option.
As an example I will use a nurse: I have no Idea what would motivate a person to become a Nurse other than this Passion or Blissful feeling when doing it. They save peoples lives and that can be a powerful cathartic experience for any of us, akin to holding your newly born child, but the demands are exponential in terms of work, minute in terms of monetary return and emotionally draining for the lives that they could not save or passon on while they were on duty.
And yet so many people around the world dedicate their lives to doing it.
So for a long winded suggestion for your blue zone, I believe Passion is a major ingredient and in your model might just be that little bit of the twilight zone sprinkled in for flavour.
Keep it coming amigo! The waves are definitely getting bigger, and the surfers are amazing.
I have a question to pose to everyone commenting above? If a serial killer manages to do what he loves, perseveres and manages to kill and not get caught continously, is he successfull?
Hi Denis.
I’ll try to be ‘nice’.
If the killers definition of success is to kill and not to get caught repeatedly and nobody has been able to catch him then the answer is YES, he is successful.
Of the 7 Billion people in the world, how many actually have ‘killing’ and getting away with it continuously’ as their definition of success?
The ones that do are abnormal and don’t belong in society as history has shown us.
What is the questions relevance to the article or ‘my’ response?
The article refers to a ‘WORK” related situation, did you read the WHOLE article?
M*L*K*
The point of the question was exactly what you said Mr Bazi. YES he is successful. The point is that success should be determined by the individual and not society’s view of the individual. Don’t you think that a killer is working when he is killing or planning? Of course he is. The point is that every person needs to stop and look at themselves and define what it is they believe will make them feel successful and stop trying to fit into society’s mould of success. A runner, farmer, painter, surfer, killer are all very different things but they all “work”, they can also all be extremely successful in their own capacity. The point is that success is a point of view and that if you decide that you will sweep the floor really well every day and you achieve that you need to change your thinking to understand that you are successful and not to take into account society’s opinion of a floor sweeper!
As far as what you commented on passion, essentially loving what you do so not working another day in your life I completely agree.
Relevance and my comment on the article: Any form of success requires dedication and perseverance more than anything else! Joy in what you do allows you to persevere longer which if you are constantly trying will eventually lead to you achieving your goal which could be considered success.
There is no such thing as luck! You are the creator of your own luck. The harder you work at something the luckier you get. Taking the example from Dion re the 2 individuals, each of those individuals is a direct product of their choices!! One might be in middle management and the other might be lower, here I am only talking about the specific example which is work and not each individuals perception of success. There are no lucky breaks, each of those players put themselves in the position through their choices to get to exactly where they are.
Yes there is a black chance area but it is the way you react and adapt to the chance situations that life throws at you (your choices) that determine where you are going to be.
I am very tired of society in general not taking responsibility for their choices. Make better choices and stick to what you love and there is a 100% chance that you will create the “luck” to be successful.
You argue the same points everyone has put forth.
Deons original comment on defining success is : ‘Success = Achieving a personal goal to do, have or be something’ where does society come in with judging this? Morally wrong and illegal habits and actions ‘HAVE TO BE’ determined by society.
Using logic and your argument of there is no luck: Every person who buys a lotto ticket has made a decision to buy one in the hopes of winning the prize. In many cases one or more people win. If they did not buy the ticket (choice I agree) they would not have won (choice has nothing to do with this, it is pure luck).
You did not choose to be born to the parents that you have, unless your beliefs are that some consciousness, that was you, floating around in limbo chose to be born to your family circumstance in which case I cannot argue or discuss this issue with you because we will be talking about two cmpletely different things and the only way to resolve that argument would be for one of us to change their outlook. Not gonna happen anytime soon. So since you did not choose your parents and you were born to billionaires that my friend is PURE LUCK and nothing to do with choice.
I agree with you in terms of what we decide and the choices we make determine our outcome but I know of many people who dare life and live on the edge, stealing motorbikes, taking drugs, having unprotected sex and yet no harm has come to them. I also know people who have done no such thing, go to church, work hard, family orientated who have a stroke and are bedridden for the rest of their lives.
Choice onlly takes us so far, passion and determination only so much further, the rest is up to chance. Just like dice, you cannot choose double six, nor can you never throw double ones. All you can do is throw the dice and WILL the result you want. And sometimes you get it.
P.s. no matter how hard, how long, or how persistent you are, if you are blind, only someone elses intervention can allow you to see again, and those discoveries while based on hard work, often require luck for a breakthrough.
Your favourite billionaires and entrepreneurs did not create their wealth alone, Bill Gates spent thousands of hours on a PC that just happened to be at the school that he attended whic was one of a handful of schools around America at that time. Yes he worked hard, yes he was persistent. But without access to that pc it can be argued that he might not have had his idea at the time that he did to influence the world the way that he did. Right time, Right place Right attitude.
A recipe if you like of 80% work, 15% probability (blue zone, networking, other people) 5% twilight zone.
Luck is a myth. You know my view on wether we choose our parents and people in our existance and I agree we would talk ourselves blue to convince each other.
Lets rather follow your logic. The chances of your sperm fertilising the right egg were over a million to one so you have to agree that you were very “lucky” to be born. I think that if you were to ask people wether they felt lucky that they had been born the answers would vary and a few could possibly say that they were”unlucky” to be born. Hence luck is a perception!
You say born to billionaire’s is lucky. Who are you to judge if you have no idea what they believe is “lucky”. That is quite possibly your perception of luck. The childs existance could be far worse than either of us could imagine.
Every second you live you have an infinitate amount of possibilities and probabilities ahead of you. These are quite possibly influenced by your prior decisions but are definately influenced by your choice at this and every moment. If one of those probabilities happens to be winning the lotto, that is just one of an infinate amount. Who am I to say you are lucky in this? You could possibly have all the money in the world and lose your health or family etc.
I would go so far as to say that my definition of luck is that luck is our own perception of an outcome of an infinite amount of probablities. My point of of view will allow me to either feel “lucky” or “unlucky” in any situation.
Your logic would also have me say that beacause there is only 1 individual in the world (over 6 billion to one chance) I have to believe that you are lucky to be him or her (which I do by the way). If you do not believe you are lucky to be him or her then you aren’t.
To change your luck you need to change your perception.
There is no such thing as luck.
Once again we argue two different ideas with the same name from opposite perspectives.
You argue that luck is a perception, a view of your choices in life and completely up to you.
I argue that it is a word used to describe something positive or negative occuring randomly in everyday lives and actions.
Others believe it is energy, God, buddah, Faith, in fact let’s see what they think if they respond.
And let us leave it at that.
I hope that you continue to choose me as a friend, because you are lucky that I am, or are you?
Sigh. Guys, let me help you start your own blog called, “Changing the Subject”. I charge R1000 an hour for my time.