Is it Luck or Hard Work that Merits Success? What if it’s a Little bit of Both?

Authors

Riley Green, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Hard Work, Success, Luck

Abstract

The cut-off registration date for the youth Canadian Hockey League is January 1. Due to this being the program’s regulations, most of the kids signing up and making the team are born in January, February, and March. Their birthdays being earlier in the year provides them with more experience and more time to perfect their hockey skills than the other boys who sign up for the league. Imagine that the month you are born puts you ahead of hundreds of other boys fighting to achieve the same goal as you. Because you were born earlier in the year, you have extra months to develop your hockey skills, which inevitably puts you ahead. Having an advantageous birthday may seem like pure luck, but it’s not only a birthday that makes a good hockey player; players must put in a deserving amount of effort to make the team. Then there’s Bill Joy and Bill Gates: two men born in an extraordinary time when they received the opportunity to be a part of great advancements in technology. Maybe there was some element of luck in being born at the right time, but what about the thousands of hours of effort they put into their careers? Did luck or work put them at the top of their fields?

Recommended Citation

Green, Riley (2024) "Is it Luck or Hard Work that Merits Success? What if it’s a Little bit of Both?," Marriott Student Review: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/marriottstudentreview/vol7/iss1/9