After a watching "Match Point"+ a small discussion with Nick + a small discussion with Shirui on the book " Fooled by Randomness", it dawned on me tt almost everything tt happens in life is by chance. It's like either u have the luck, or u dun have it. Pure randomness.

The basic premise of my though process is like this: Hard work is mandatory in life. Hard work basically ensures that u have the bare minimum for survival. Tt's like the law of life by some higher being aka God. So if u work hard in whatever u do, yes u'll get by.

So the issue here is why and how do pple excel in life? Some believe that people excel in life due to the fact tt they have a clear objective in their lives, and by working hard, they will achieve it in the end no matter what. All it takes is the never-say-die attitude.

Let's take for example, a musician. As long as he/she keeps working on his technique, his music knowledge, keeps getting gigs, markets himself well, does the PR thing right, he's gonna be successful? I believe tt is not the case. Millions of musicians worldwide are doing their thing, but yet only a handful made it big. One needs a hit song, and from what i know, u can't just write a song, let alone a hit song. It's the moment of inspiration thing, the moment tt u know it's good. It's by chance. Now u think u have a hit song, u need to convince pple tt your song is a hit song. That is highly determined by the current music trend in the market. It might be hip hop at the moment but ur churning out some classical piece. Now even if u think u have a hit song, and everyone agrees you have a hit song, the record producers still dun think they shld sign u. Y? Cos u look like roadkill. Can u dictate stuff like tt? Tt's totally by chance too.

It's just like investing. Everyone invests. Y do only a select few make it big like Warren Buffet and Robert Kiyosaki? The world is so big, and only they are the ones who are able to identify the market trends? Y does the rest of the pple who invest make only a decent sum to lead a more comfortable life? You can't predict the stock market, so it just happens tt u believe tt this particular stock is gonna rise tml and therefore you buy a significant amount, and luckily it really did rise, and thus u become rich.

Another example, Apple vs Creative. Did Apple create the most complete mp3 player? No, it just made a pretty and simple one and marketed it aggressively. It happened to be the first of it's kind tt's so handy and convenient, tt it took the world by storm. And the fact tt it attacked first meant tt Creative was left with no chance. Creative made good mp3 players. They are complete, with looks and function. And it's cheaper. With common sense it tells u it's a better choice between the 2. But luck dictates tt Apple wins, Creative's hardwork and sound product strategy cannot defeat randomness.

Yiwei made a good point, and tt's the discovery of gravity. What's the probability of a scientist(Isaac Newton) sitting beneath an apple tree, to have an apple drop on his head and therefore trigger his thought processes on gravity? And what are the odds of a person surviving a knock from a falling fruit? It could probably kill him right there if he was really unlucky. But Isaac Newton was a hard working man, he would discover gravity someday somehow and become great. Or maybe someone other scientist might be sitting under tt tree tt day and take all his hard work away. It might happen you know.

Personally, i have had my experiences with luck. Last year, i was training for my ippt. So i ran everyday, did my PT u know.. worked hard. But, 1 month before my test, during a run, i tried to sidestep a pedestrian. And i missed my footing, so i twisted my ankle. Twisting your ankle during a run is quite wtf. Twisting your ankle during a run 1 mth before your ippt is wtf x2. You tell me, was i unlucky? Or i din not work hard enough? Maybe i should done a Le Parkour over tt fella instead.

But of course, successful people will always share with you their strategies and their mindset. They write books, do interviews to let pple know how to become successful. To me, tt's somewhat bullshit. Yes, they are really hardworking, but what they dun tell you is the lucky break they've got. How would you react if Warren Buffet said "You know, i got really lucky for this particular investment. I just happen to buy it for diversification, but god knows, the price just skyrocketed. And here i am, Warren Buffet, the man u look up to for investment knowledge." I doubt any successful person would say something like tt. It just totally goes against the norm.

I believe for every 1 successful person, there will be 99 not-as-successful pple out there. And probably some of them would tell you tt their "super big break" din not come as planned, and therefore they could not make it very big. Just so so big. So 1 person telling you tt luck is overrated, compared to 50 pple telling you tt it's all abt luck, which side would you believe?

Luck can snow ball. It happens in life, and by Murphy's Law, it will happen in life no matter how improbable the odds are. U can be extremely charmed throughout your life, or u can be extremely suay all the way. It happens, and u cannot do anything about it at all i believe.

Imagine being born into an African tribe family. Do you think you can overcome all odds to become the top businessman in the world by pure hard work? Or do you think u really need Bill Gates to fly into Africa and adopt you as his son before u really have a shot at it?

Think abt it.