It's not entirely so black and white, and it's definitely no XOR. You can work hard and fail due to being unlucky - as far as I understand it, that's most peopl

It's not entirely so black and white, and it's definitely no XOR. You can work hard and fail due to being unlucky - as far as I understand it, that's most people who start their first business. You can be lucky and fail upwards, see Trump, who botched more projects than he didn't. And you can be lucky and apply yourself, see Elon Musk or Bill Gates. It's important to realise that both play a role, because you don't want to self sabotage when your business fails due to extraneous circumstance. Perhaps you should try again, preparing better for things you can't control. Perhaps it really just was a bad time to get promoted and you should stick with the company longer. It's also important to realise that someone who got a couple mill as an inheritance or "boost" for their business will always have a leg up - if you're measuring success in monetary terms. The same goes for challenging entrenched competition in your sector. Perhaps you should re-target to businesses that will be amenable to your agility and tailor-made solutions, because that kind of service might not be offered by well-established competitors. Equally important is realising that there is a basic truth to the biblical parable of the talents: no matter what you get, you won't get anywhere without applying yourself, whatever that means to you.