Why I’m insulted when people say I’m lucky

What is luck? Is it the secret to success? No. The very definition of the word speaks for itself “luck is success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions”. It’s a concept of chance, but the fact is hard work, and only hard work, is the secret to your success.

So, when someone tells me I’m lucky to be where I am today - whether they mean to or not- they are diminishing all of my hard work. I understand that I am blessed to have been hired at an internationally established marketing firm such as Marketing Eye and that my female power horse boss, Mellissah Smith, believes I have the strategic brain to make it in the Marketing Industry. But this was not all handed to me, and the assumption that elements of luck must have been involved is insulting.

People don’t just fall into a career and succeed. They have worked hard, put in long nights at the office, worked on their relationships, built connections, honed their skills, and all of that hard work goes unnoticed by those who believe in the concept of ‘luck’ or ‘right place at the right time’.

It’s as though people who say “oh aren’t you lucky with all your success" are blinded by ignorance and refuse to believe someone is simply more qualified because they are willing to go the extra mile, consistently putting in those arduous hours. ‘Hard work’ as defined by Google exemplifies this as it reads “hard work is a great deal of effort and endurance toward a common goal”, and as we all know when it comes to business, that goal is SUCCESS.

It seems apparent that those who work hard have the mentality hard work got them there, those who have not succeeded believe it’s due to their lack of luck or perhaps others were simply luckier than themselves. Do you believe luck or lack-thereof is a legitimate excuse? Or is it just a way of making someone’s shortcomings seem as though it was out of their hands?  

Any businessperson will tell you the key ingredient to their success is hard work, in fact, the truth about success is that although it takes hard work to get there, it’s even harder work to remain on top. You will never see billionaire moguls such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett attributing their success to anything other than tireless, good old fashioned, hard work.