4 ms·
Interesting that despite numerous cases of success, he still believes in the big ol' bag of luck. Highly successful people usually loathe to admit the part of l
by sireat 18y ago
Interesting that despite numerous cases of success, he still believes in the big ol' bag of luck. Highly successful people usually loathe to admit the part of luck in their lives.
- ph0rque 18y ago"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." --Seneca
- josefresco 18y agoSeneca was kind of a rebel, and quotes like that discount the instances of true luck.
- dangoldin 18y agoWell you can increase your exposure to luck. Although the odds of rolling a die once and getting a 6 are 1 in 6. The odds of rolling a 6 when you roll the die 100 times are much greater.
- maximilian 18y ago1-(5/6)^100=0.999999988 5.99999993 times greater in fact.
- pixcavator 18y agoYeah, instead of one lottery ticket buy ten.
- dangoldin 18y agoWell I'm not including the cost aspect. Each roll of the die has some cost associated with it. It's up to the individual to determine how much effort to expend to get a chance to roll the die. If lottery tickers were free then you'd get as many as you could.
- sanj 18y agoI've found that the people who are most successful are those that ascribe their success to good luck. And when things fail, they examine what they did wrong: externalize success, internalize failure. Those that believe that luck has "nothing to do with it" are generally endowed with a huge ego and no way to see around it. Strangely, they're also the ones most likely to blame bad luck when things go wrong: internalize success, externalize failure. The advantage to internalizing failure is that you can learn from it.
- kirse 18y agoFrom an optimistic (and even mental health) perspective, externalizing failure and internalizing success - aka "I did the best I could but the situation did not materialize" - is much healthier than internalizing failure and blaming yourself when things go wrong. Externalizing success never gives yourself due credit when things go right, and internalizing failure always blames yourself when things go poorly. See the problem? This is not to say one should have an inflated sense of value or "don't learn from your mistakes", but it is much healthier to optimistically look at failure as not a personal thing, but something external. People who have succeeded and are confident in themselves are never afraid to look back and admit that a little bit of luck (and opportunity) was part of the equation. But by no means will they discredit their own personal influence and attribute the entire success to something external.
- nostrademons 18y agoI recall a psych study on this. They found that people who externalize failure and internalize success are happier, but those who internalize failure and externalize success are more successful. And yeah, they did find the corollary that more successful people tend to be less happy. Makes perfect sense really.
- sanj 18y agoI'm pretty happy. And pretty successful. Maybe I'm just lucky?
- 18y ago
- petercooper 18y agoLuck is always a factor - however, I think there's definitely some upbringing and family success at play here. Nick's brother Adrian Hanauer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Hanauer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Hanauer ) is also a successful investor.
- wmeredith 18y ago"I'd rather be lucky than good." -Lefty Gomez, NY Yankees and MLB All-Star 1933 - 1939