> I wish we as a culture/society, acknowledged the luck and timing factor more as a factor in career development. I've been mentoring young people and college

> I wish we as a culture/society, acknowledged the luck and timing factor more as a factor in career development. I've been mentoring young people and college students on and off for years. The influence of luck on their success is a constant topic. Definitely not ignored. If anything, they tend to overestimate the role of luck and external factors in career development. Each year it seems like I talk to more students who have been convinced that success can only be the result of pure chance. I watch a lot of them lose motivation because they think they need luck and nepotism and connections and wealthy parents to be successful. For example: All of them have heard the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Some of them take it so literally that they lose motivation to learn things, instead assuming that their career success is going to come down to whoever their parents or friends can introduce them to. This leads to a lot of frustration come internship time when they see a couple of their less-knowledgeable friends land great internships at their parents' or friends' parents' companies. I feel like I spend a lot of time convincing some of these students that they do, indeed, have a lot of influence over their career trajectory. Their outlooks tend to change quickly when they arrive at a job and realize that what they know really does matter a lot more than who their parents are when it comes to getting anything done. I also have to emphasize that "who you know" isn't some fixed quantity, and that they will meet a lot of people in their career. The more they deliver good results, the better the impression they leave on the "who you know" and the more valuable their reputation becomes. You're never going to expand your network without putting yourself out there. It's tough to compete with the constant onslaught of cynicism they consume on TikTok, Reddit, and other websites every single day, though.