The Luck Vs. Hard Work Debate: What Matters Most In Life Success

What matters in life in order to success? The standard debate goes something like this, “What bring success in life: luck vs hard work?”
But that’s the wrong approach. Both are at play. It is not one or the other. Also, there are more factors you can leverage to succeed.
Today, I cover the following topics:

* How luck plays a role in someone’s success.
* How hard work is a lot more valuable than you think.
* Keys to motivating yourself and having a strong work ethic.
* What matters more: luck, hard work and effort, or other factors (I’ll explain what these other factors are).
* Does luck play an important role in life success? (Hint: It depends. Are you aiming to be #1 in the world or just to earn a good living?)

You should trust my advice on the luck versus hard work debate because I reference proof and case studies from successful people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Listen to the audio podcast below (while you’re in the car, working out, waiting in line, wherever you want) to find the truth about the luck vs hard work debate:

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Prefer watching to listening? Watch this video:

Will Smith’s Thoughts on the Difference Between Talent and Skill
Let’s take a look at what one of the most famous actors of all time has to say about hard work. In this video, starting at time stamp 0:33, he explains that there is a huge misconception around the difference between talent and skill. Talent is what you have naturally. Skill is only developed through hours and hours of beating on your craft.

This reminds me of the tortoise and the hare fable. The hare (rabbit) raced the tortoise but got arrogant because he could run so much faster. He falls asleep in the middle of the race and the tortoise wins slowly and steadily moving while the hare slept.
Why is this relevant?
Well, what Will is saying here is that talent is simply potential. Without putting in work, you will never come close to reaching that potential. And many people with a lot of talent don’t put in the necessary work because they become spoiled and rely on their talent to get by.
I’m sure you know someone in school or who plays a sport who can study or practice much less than you (or not at all) and still beat you. So rather than working harder, they are tempted to work less and get lazy because they can. This works until you start competing against a national or global playing field as you reach college and adulthood. That’s exactly what Rich Froning, one of the top CrossFit athletes of all time, said in his book about what separates the good from the great.
All of a sudden, you’re competing with people who have talent and work hard.
Simply put, hard work is a very useful factor to get ahead of others. You may not become the best in the world without a certain amount of talent. But you can still do pretty darn well and above average if you outwork others.

Pat Cash’s Thoughts
Pat is regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time. He is a Wimbledon champion, 5-time Grand Slam finalist, and has achieved a career high ATP singles ranking of #4.
In a Q&A session hosted by Quora, he (like many other top athletes I’ve studied) admitted that to get to the highest levels of the sport,