I try not to think too hard about how my recent progress toward not being completely hopeless depended on a few inflection points that could easily have gone an

I try not to think too hard about how my recent progress toward not being completely hopeless depended on a few inflection points that could easily have gone another way or could have been inaccessible had a few earlier events gone a different way. Luck is a force multiplier that can go wrong as easily as it goes right. Circumstances determine how much you can prepare for either type.