Are those who become financially independent “lucky?” Are successful business owners, elite athletes, or artistic masterminds “talented?”
Perhaps. But it’s hardly the entire story. Where and how does good fortune end and real “luck” begin?
Lucky Choices?
For the majority of us out there in the world, our lives are steered by a series of beliefs and choices. Many of these guiding values and actions are seemingly insignificant and inconsequential. At least until they become regular actions or inactions.
A few examples:
- “Sure, F-it, I’ll have another helping of food.”
- “I’m not motivated to go to the gym today.”
- “Investing is too complicated, so I’ll pay a professional.”
- “Investing is only for rich people.”
- “I don’t have much time, so I’ll order take-out food.”
- “I have so much debt that it’s not even worth trying to pay it down.”
Over time, these teeny-tiny choices lead to drastically different habits, beliefs, and principles, which in turn leads to different lives.
If we identify and study where our shared roots bifurcate, where new branches of life are sprouted, we find that core elements of self-confidence, discipline, and hard work still go a long way.
More times than not, those who are “lucky” or “talented” have chosen to live life in hard-mode, to take on challenges and learn and grow. Come my fellow metaphorical gardeners, let’s plant our seeds together.
Luck always seems to be against the man who depends on it.
Unknown Source
Come On CC, Of Course There is Luck!
Yes, absolutely, there is an element of luck⏤good or bad⏤to any life story. But it’s rarely the full story.
Ah, I’m feeling like we should sit down by the fire for a good-ole’-fashioned metaphor.
For those of you new here, I’m a geologist (for now). One thing I learned early in my studies is that beneath every fold is generally a fault*. For you non-geologists, a fold is a wave-like deformation in layered rock, whereas a fault is a zone of deformation and offset between two blocks of rock.
Well, just like with our fold and fault relationship, when we see a story of luck or talent, there’s often a hidden and massive base of hard choices, hard work, and most importantly, intentionality. These choices include delayed gratification, grit in the face of certain adversity, and a constant burning belief that we can be someone better, stronger, or wiser than we are today.
*Don’t fight me on this you overly-proud geologist. There are exceptions, especially in the ductile realm, but let me have my metaphor.
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Intentionality with Deliberate Practice
In their 2016 book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, authors Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool propose that deliberate practice is key to learning and achieving. This book is a critical response to the concept of simply “showing up” or the “10,000-hour rule” popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.
Their premise is that showing up is important, but being deliberate and intentional is far more impactful in producing expertise.
While talent and luck do exist, those who inherit these traits aren’t often the ones who go on to achieve the greatest success. Interesting!
The innately talented individuals often haven’t instilled a solid work ethic and habits of deliberate practice. It’s like the kid who never studied to get good grades, right?
Eventually, the innately talented become frustrated and burn out when the limits of their inherent good fortune are reached.
Conversely, those who learn early to practice intentionally instill foundational habits necessary for longevity in the activity or pursuit of choice.
This might be one of the more impactful books I’ve read in the last five years. I’ve taken the message and methods of deliberate practice to both my climbing and personal life, with great results. Showing up is obviously still important, but embracing practice with a critical and intentional eye makes the difference.
Bottom Line: Talent and luck do exist. Research, however, suggests that those who depend on talent and luck reach their potential early and burn out, having not instilled a work ethic to improve and learn. Deliberate practice and intentionality are key to long-term, sustainable improvement and “success.”
An Example: Adam Ondra Isn’t Lucky
For example, take a look at Adam Ondra, arguably the world’s greatest climber, ever. If you haven’t heard his name yet, give it time. The Olympics are coming. Anyway, Ondra has some things going for him. He is incredibly flexible, has a very favorable build (lean, large arm-span), and his parents got him climbing at a very young age.
So is Ondra just lucky or talented? Hell no!
Adam trains four to five hours a day, for six days a week! And despite being arguably the world’s best climber, he still chose to go to college. When he was in college he absolutely punished his body and mind, maintaining his rein on the throne of climbing’s elite. But he loves what he does, so it’s never work. By every stretch of the imagination, Ondra has earned his success.
Here’s a quick 50-second teaser on Adam’s dedication and eventual success on the world’s hardest route, “Silence.” Give it a quick watch.
The fun, sometimes, has to be deserved.
Adam Ondra
Building Wealth Isn’t For the Lucky Either
Let’s get a couple of things straight:
- A large salary isn’t required for building wealth. But it certainly helps.
- A college degree isn’t required for building wealth. Here’s a gaggle of high-paying jobs that don’t require a degree.
But achieving either a college degree or a high salary isn’t lucky either.
The value of a college degree is dropping as the cost is rising. That said, there’s no scoffing at the work and dedication required to get a degree. I think we can all agree that some degrees are harder to obtain than others, but in most cases, we can’t simply show up and expect to be handed a diploma. There’s work required: attention and deliberate effort to make good grades, expand social skills, and earn recommendations.
Conversely, a degree is not an open door to a high salary either. In fact, a degree is no longer an open door to really anything. Securing a job still requires the artful skill of demonstrating value to a company or organization.
Your diploma printed on expensive paper does not demonstrate value to an employer.
A High Income is Just the Start
Feeling good about a high income? Wait, there’s more!
The real battle, keeping lifestyle inflation in check, is a true test of long-term determination. As we all know, money made is money spent.
(Related Post: “Financial Freedom Is Only Possible With Your Soul-Sucking, High-Income Career”)
Bottom Line: Achieving a high salary and building wealth is rarely a fortunate circumstance. The process of demonstrating value to an employer, with or without a college degree, is still critically important. The final, and arguably most difficult battle occurs when attempting to maintain high savings rates, avoiding lifestyle inflation.
Being “Lucky” Is Largely Your Choice
The day you decide to do it is your lucky day.
Japanese Proverb
So, here we are.
Again, I want to clearly reiterate that good and bad fortune do exist. But luck doesn’t define our destiny.
Privilege also exists. Relatively speaking, I was born into some degree of privilege. But as I’ve discussed in this rant about high salaries, many people are born into the very same world of privilege. Privilege is born through geographic location, race, or some other advantage. I’m fully aware that we don’t all begin at the same starting line in life.
The point is to do everything we can to create our own destiny and luck. Life will throw lemons at all of us at some point, if we haven’t already been pelted by some little turds in the alley. Some of us face more daunting hurdles to find contentment in life. Others will let steaming heaps of advantages wastefully slip away with poor habits and caustic cynicism. The common denominator to improving a situation is taking (deliberate) action.
Taking action won’t be easy. Forming new habits won’t come naturally. But seeing results that improve your financial situation or your life at large is fairly badass and motivating.
If you are reading this on a smartphone or computer from a climate-controlled room, I’m willing to bet you have the groundwork to achieve success, however that looks for you. Building wealth is surprisingly simple. Getting started and sticking to the plan is not.
Cheers to the journey, friends. Today is your lucky day.
How have you created your own luck or destiny? We’d love to hear your stories in the comment section below.
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I think luck is a bigger part than you think. Take your climber, if he was the wrong body type then he would have received a ton of negative reinforcement on his way to learning to climb. Say he was built like an American football offensive lineman, 6’4” and weighed 295 lbs. He would never be even an average climber no matter how much he tried. But Adam is the Michael Phelps of climbing. He was probably better than most people at the gym his first try at climbing. That positive reinforcement is what fuels grit, not some intrinsic part of his nature. I was very gifted at math and science. Without ever studying hard I sailed through chemical engineering and had an outstanding career. There was virtually zero effort in getting that college degree. And there were times I worked very hard at my job after college but it was fueled by the certain knowledge that my hard work would be rewarded because I was naturally better than everyone else I worked with. It just made sense to invest in that one thing I was world class at, or maybe semi-world class in my case. But having the innate talent to excel at something, anything, is not learned, its a result of your DNA. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who ever reached the top of any field who wasn’t genetically gifted with the qualities needed to get there. Sure they also worked hard but they did that with the confidence that their hard work would pay off, because they knew they were better than their competition. It doesn’t take any grit at all to bet on a sure winner, it is just common sense. I worked with dozens of engineers that lacked top talent, none of them did very well in their careers even though every one of them worked much harder than me. It is not a fair world in that respect. Hard work without talent is kind of futile, and if you’ve got enough talent you will never have to make yourself work hard, it will be obvious to you the rewards outweigh the pain and you’ll enjoy working hard.
Steve, thanks for the insightful comment. Adam Ondra aside, I still agree with the research suggesting that talent and luck only take you so far, in most cases. As I said a few times, luck and talent are certainly real. Perhaps you were lucky or naturally talented, and are one of the outlier cases where you floated through school and a career, as you describe. Either way, the point is for those on the outside looking in to not take on a mindset of “this is something for someone else. I can’t do this.” I strongly believe that with intentionality, many folks can improve their lives, however that looks for them.
Thank you for this! I do believe that some luck is involved in anyone’s success, but I agree that hard work and choices are underestimated by most people. I attribute my own success of paying off my student loan debt early to reading books and blogs about personal finance and how to save more. I spent time and put in the effort to educate myself and follow through instead of sitting around complaining about how hard it is to live on my paltry salary like most others I know. Of course I’m lucky that I was born in a first world country to parents that valued education, but so many others have very similar situations that choose not to capitalize on their luck.