Luck Vs Skill — Did we actually earn our success?

Ask yourself this question.

How successful my life has been? Use a scale from +10 (Super Successful) to 0 (Total loser). Jot down your answer.

Now ask yourself this follow-up question.

How much of this success can be attributed to your own actions — your actions, your work, your decisions, and so on. In other words, how much of your success is truly your own? And how much is down to chance, factors beyond your control? Note down these answers as percentages.

When I asked a few of my friends to do this exercise, this is the answer I got. 60–70% to their own efforts and 30–40% because of luck. My answer was 50–50.

While doing this exercise, I thought only about the role luck played in my education, career, etc. But my perception about luck completely changed when I read an interesting quote from Warren Buffet in the book “The Snowball”.

Imagine there are two identical twins in the womb, both equally bright and energetic. And the genie says to them, “One of you is going to be born in the United States, and one of you is going to be born in Bangladesh. And if you wind up in Bangladesh, you will pay no taxes. What percentage of your income would you bid to be the one that is born in the United States?” — Warren Buffet

When this question was asked, most people put the figure to 80%. In other words, we are prepared to sacrifice a high proportion of our income to grow up in our preferred country. The fact that our place of birth is worth that much money to us makes it clear how greatly it influences our success.

It says something about the fact that society has something to do with your fate and not just your innate qualities. The people who say, “I did it all myself,” believe me, they’d bid more to be in the United States than in Bangladesh.

It doesn’t stop with the country of origin. You weren’t just born in a particular country, but in an area with a particular pin code and into a particular family. None of that is within your control. You have been given values, behaviors, principles that help or hinder you in everyday life, and again these are beyond your control. You were slotted into an education system with teachers you didn’t choose. You got sick, suffered fortune’s slings and arrows, lost your loved ones (or spared from them), and were responsible for absolutely none of it. You slipped into a series of roles and you made decisions — based on what? Perhaps you read a book that changed your life — but how did you come to hear about it? Let’s say you met someone who opened doors for you, without which you wouldn’t have got where you are today. Who do you get to thank for this acquaintance?

Even if you’ve had a fair share of tussles with fate, you’ve got to admit that you are fortunate. Imagine yourself as a slave in the Roman Empire. How many of your inborn talents would have been worth much in those environments?

What you are, you owe to your genes. Your level of intelligence, whether you’re introverted or extroverted is largely determined by your genes. If you believe your success is based on your hard work, having a growth mindset, on driving tenacity, you’re not wrong. It's just that you owe your willpower you’re so proud of to the interplay between your genes and environment.

So, given all that: what proportion of your success would you ascribe to your own achievement? Correct. Much lesser than 60%. My answer would be zero. Your successes are fundamentally based on things over which you have no control whatsoever.

There are 2 key takeaways from all this.

First. Stay Humble — particularly if you are successful. The greater your success, the less you should toot your horn. Getting rid of pride is a fundamental cornerstone of a good life. Remind yourself daily that everything you are, everything you have and can do, is more to do with chance. For those of us blessed with good luck — gratitude is the only appropriate response.

Second. Willingly and ungrudgingly surrender part of your success to people who were born with the wrong genes into the wrong families, in the areas with wrong pin codes. It's not just noble; it's common sense. Donations and taxes aren’t financial matters. They’re issues of morality.