Never Underestimate The Power Of Luck

The topic of failure came up this afternoon, or more specifically, the topic of why most people fail came up. 

As is common among most groups of people who entertain this particular topic for a long enough conversation, eventually several opinions were shared as to "why" people fail.

Some of the "whys" that were mentioned this afternoon were; being unprepared, listening to people who doubt your abilities, not having a plan, being afraid, overthinking, diluting your efforts, not being realistic about what you can and cannot control, half-measures, being unwilling to make sacrifices, letting your ego run the show, not asking for help when needed, and losing focus.

Which are all true enough, but also a bit clichéd. 

For all the truth in those listed reasons, there is also another factor that is rarely mentioned as a reason why people fail, but one which I frequently bring up in conversations of this nature. 

And that factor is luck.

Luck is huge.

Mentioning that I believed luck was a major factor in failure got me both sidelong glances and nods of agreement. 

There were comments along the lines of "You have to create your own luck" or "You have to learn to manage the circumstances that come your way" That completely missed what I mean by luck.

I just deleted a couple of paragraphs that illustrated how much luck factors into success and failure, as the words seemed not only insufficient, but a bit heavy-handed (stuff like "what about losing your sight halfway into your endeavors, or being hit by a car?")

I'll have to let my opinion stand at "Luck is huge."