So, does it?

Thank you for your feedback to yesterday's question - "Does pure luck exist?"

I am curious to hear what more of you think about this topic, but in the meantime I will post a few of my own thoughts on the matter.

Opportunities are everywhere; we live in a world full of them. Success is a matter of seeking out opportunities, taking advantage of them, working hard, being determined, and not letting "failure" or mishaps stand in the way of whatever it is you seek to achieve. The person who landed their dream job? They weren't lucky. They weren't simply in the right place at the right time. That person has a unique gift, has played to their strengths in the work that they do and the career goals that they have, and their hard work and determination has ultimately paid off. Ever heard the quote "everything happens for a reason"? Time and time again, people's life stories have proved that to be true. The fact that Bill Gates "happened" to grow up in the right place at the right time? Simple. He was born with a unique potential to be one of the most talented and successful people in the world and took advantage of the opportunities he had. He didn't sit around and wait for things to come to him either - he was proactive in seeking out his passion. I strongly believe that you find what you are looking for, but sometimes we forget the easiest part - you must actually look for it and open your eyes to see what is around you.


Until tomorrow...

Does luck determine your success?

I am currently reading the book "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell (author of "Blink" and "The Tipping Point.") Gladwell takes a look into the lives of successful people such as Bill Gates and The Beatles and identifies why these people have had wild success in their careers. He explores the idea that each of these individuals have grown up in an environment with opportunities that no one else has had, thus making them inevitably successful.

To give you an idea of what this looks like, let's take a quick look into the childhood of Bill Gates:

"Opportunity number one was that Gates got sent to Lakeside. How many high schools in the world had access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968? Opportunity number two was that the mothers of Lakeside had enough money to pay for the school's computer fees. Number three was that, when that money ran out, one of the parents happened to work at C-Cubed, which happened to need someone to check its code on the weekends, and which also happened not to care if weekends turned into weeknights. Number four was that Gates just happened to find out about ISI, and ISI just happened to need someone to work on its payroll software..."

The story continues to explore several other "opportunities" that were presented to Gates that eventually led to his multi-billion dollar success. Gladwell continues to reiterate throughout the book that successful people do not simply "rise from nothing" yet are handed opportunity after opportunity and continue to persue them (sometimes blindly) until they have eventually achieved their success. As I am reading this, it raises the question of: does pure luck exist? Are some people simply "luckier" and dealt better cards than others in life, thus leading to their success?

I have a viewpoint on this but I am curious to hear from you first. Feel free to comment or share your ideas at TheDailyChallengeBlog@gmail.com.