Michael Wolfe wrote this inspiring article answering the debate of luck versus talent in startups.
Successful people usually point to talent...they tell stories of unbelievable execution, insight, and clever pivots from great entrepreneurs who they feel would have succeeded under any circumstances. Many of those founders go on to multiple successes.
Team Luck points to people they know who are wealthy and successful but just can't seem to get anything done. They must have stumbled onto the right idea at the right time, caught a wave, got someone to overpay for their company, and laughed all of the way to the bank. People say, "geez, if he could have done that, I could have."
In a debate like this you can either pick a side or split the difference with an "it depends." Instead of doing that, I'll propose a third option: I'll call it "positioning."
An actionable take-away from this is to figure out what actions put you in the way of luck, in places where your talents can be both enhanced and put to use, and do it more often. What can you do in the coming year to multiply your chances of success?
If you read this far, you should follow me on twitter here.
