What % of your lot in life is due to luck?

[gtramontelli]

This is a philosophical question, I guess. But it's a question that often seems to come up (in a roundabout way) in these threads about gov't entitlements. This is an oversimplification, so bear with me:

Some believe that one's position in life has little to do with luck. Your choices, work ethic, and motivation are the primary determinants for success of lack thereof.

Others believe that choices are important, but that your lot in life has a lot more to do with luck. That is, that your family, support system, culture, and even geographic location play a major role in your level of success.

Look at this kid:


To what degree can choices change his lot in life? His position and future are largely based on luck of the draw. This works in both ways. Someone who is fortunate enough to be born into a successful family with connections can make a great number of bad decisions and still be successful. Perhaps that person's father is a politician and covers up for their child's substance abuse. Perhaps that person's family name allows him to never show up for his military assignment. Fuck it, I'm talking about GWB here. This guy can screw up anything and still come out ahead. Good choices?

So here is my point: I have seen it quoted on another thread that some folks are born on third base and think they hit a triple. I think that saying is true. I think that people should keep that in mind when thinking about how great they are because they have "accomplished" so much. How much did YOU really accomplish?

I was personally fortunate that my parents decided to come to this country. I was also fortunate that they supported education, even though they were blue collar workers themselves. Not going to college was never really an option, though I always knew my folks would care for me no matter what I did (another lucky thing for me).

I am also fortunate that my skin color allows me never to have to deal with racism (it still exists). I'm lucky that when my mom was pregnant with me she didn't use crack, giving me a lifetime of addiction and cognitive limitation to look forward to. I'm lucky that my parents worked and showed me that you ALWAYS go to work, even if it's hard. Some people don't have that.

So ask yourself...how much does luck play a role in your current status?

[DEMIAN1970]

Luck is everything. You think Paris Hilton would be anything more than a cashier at Wal-Mart if she had been born into a single-wide dwelling family?

[jerome_oneil]

I was born a white, middle class male in America. There are none that are more fortunate than I.

As Amon Henecy once told Utah Phillips..

"You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century industrial
America. You came into the world armed to the teeth with an arsenal of
weapons. The weapons of privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege,
economic privilege. You wanna be a pacifist, it's not just giving up guns and
knives and clubs and fists and angry words, but giving up the weapons of
privilege, and going into the world completely disarmed. Try that."

[Trash]

90 - 95%

The other 5% is I mostly put myself through college by working during the day and going to classes at night, or going to classes during the day and working at night, plus student loans. Took me five years to graduate.

[county]

Born white in the South to a family that believed in reading....pretty fcuking lucky.

And, I got a Blackbird.

[acalliste]

I think luck initially plays a big role, as far as being born in a certain family, or with certain traits, and esp plays a bigger role when you are incapable of controlling what happens to you (while still a baby or young child). But the older you get, the less luck has to do with it, and the more aptitude, attitude and willpower take over.

If you were born with some advantages, and play them right as you get older, you are a step ahead of the game. But I've seen people born with every advantage completely screw their lives up for reasons such as lack of motivation, arrogance, or willful stupidity.

I've also seen people who were born with many disadvantages, or had really bad luck before they could do much to control their own lives, turn themselves around and be very successul - due to good work ethic, aptitude and a positive attitude.

[Gaolee]

To expand and clarify- the circumstances we are born in and our innate aptitudes are luck. What you do with opportunities is not luck. But, to take advantage of an opportunity, you have to be lucky enough to have an opportunity.

It is a chicken and egg argument, except the lucky part always comes first.

[BigArn]

Originally Posted by county

Born white in the South to a family that believed in reading....pretty fcuking lucky.

And, I got a Blackbird.

Born white in the North to a family that believed in reading, and yes I'm damn lucky

And I to have a blackbird.

[jerome_oneil]

Life is merely the better part of the "Crotch Fruit Lottery."

[ty454]

I'd say luck rules up until High School, then it transitions over to motivation.

[acalliste]

Originally Posted by Gaolee

But, to take advantage of an opportunity, you have to be lucky enough to have an opportunity.

Or motivated enough to get your lazy a$$ out of bed and put yourself in opportunity's way.

[jerome_oneil]

Originally Posted by ty454

I'd say luck rules up until High School, then it transitions over to motivation.

The fact that you are born in a nation where you can go to school at all is why you're lucky. Some kid in Darfur has little hope at all, no matter how motivated.

[jim schmidt]

I'm probably SBN's leading proponent of the importance of luck.

Luck determines the effectiveness ratio of hard work to success. Without good fortune, no amount of hard work will guarantee success. With good luck, very little work is required to be successful.

In no way does this undermine the importance of effort, commitment or determination. But it is always a mistake to believe that people who haven't enjoyed great success are merely lazy or careless or stupid. And it is a bigger mistake to suppose that you'd be more successful in someone else's shoes.

Luck is also serendipitous in some ways. If I hadn't made a prank phone call at 15, I wouldn't have ended up with the career I did. I had a lucky accident of fate. How many other people found their calling by accident of fate? I'd bet more than a few.

So to answer the question, these aren't really separate components that can be divvied up on a pie chart. Luck is the transmission that determines the multiplying ratio of effort. More luck, more success from the same effort; less luck, less success from the same effort.

[rbwilliams2]

Hard work definitely helps, but its mostly luck.

As we used to say on our school track team: "Train hard, but there's no substitute for good genes."

[Gaolee]

Originally Posted by acalliste

Or motivated enough to get your lazy a$$ out of bed and put yourself in opportunity