How many of you think your success is because you were at the right place at the right time?
Quite a number for people in positions of power undoubtedly are talented and hardworking but they have also been luckier than most.
A brilliant video from #Veritasium about why success is a bit of luck and of course hard work:
1. We remember vividly all of what we do but not all of what everyone else does so we overestimate our contributions and underestimate others. This leads us to underestimate the influence of other factors like that of luck in our success.
2. Those who’ve achieved a certain status and power, don’t realise how lucky they’ve been as they don’t have the experience of others who have worked hard and failed. This gives them a distorted view. To them, the world is fair – it rewards hard work. Others must be less talented or less hard-working.
3. Our nature of downplaying the importance of chance events may actually improve the probability of success because if we perceive an outcome to be uncertain we are less likely to invest effort in it, which further decreases the chance of success.
Now, if you’ve achieved success, luck played a significant role. Given your good fortune, you should do what you can to increase the luck of others.
