Luck plays a role, but on the whole, the vast majority of self-made, wealthy people that I know are extremely talented in some area. Whether it is the ability to sell, manage others, motivate, communicate, sniff out deals (real estate, business opportunities, etc), self-made people almost always have a lot of talent in one or more of these areas. They may not always possess superior intellect, but they are ALWAYS talent rich in some of the areas that I listed.
Here are the hard facts, cannot be disputed: 49.8% psychology 14% from skill 19% from being super smart 24% genetic 13% internet porn 87% good at math 2% cannot be accounted for 1% can be accounted for
"I would like you to imagine a national coin-flipping contest." Let's imagine all 268 million people in the United States are asked to wager one dollar on their ability to call the flip of a coin. "If they call correctly, they win a dollar from those who called wrong." After each flip the losers drop out, and on the subsequent flip the stakes multiply. Each person has a 50-50 chance of calling each flip and approximately half of the people will lose and drop out each round. After ten flips there would be approximately 260,000 people that had successfully called ten consecutive coin flips. After 20 flips, based purely on chance, there would be approximately 250 people that had called 20 consecutive coin flips - a seemingly miraculous feat. The surviving callers would have over one million dollars each at that point. Press coverage and inquiries about their coin calling ability would increase with each successive flip. Several callers might even attempt to profit from their good fortune by writing books on coin calling, setting up 900 phone lines, or by sending mass mailings or spam Email solicitations offering to share their secrets with intrigued members of the public. As with winners of the lottery, its obvious that those remaining would have been blessed with good luck. But what if a large percentage of remaining coin flippers had a common characteristic or trait. http://www.investorhome.com/coinflip.htm
I think talent is a very important point. Seems like every kid in the world at some point in time displays a talent for something. Imo, this is the jump off point for development, but often it is not recognized, nutured or for whatever reason pushed aside as not important or whatever. Too bad. so sad.
I thought machiavelli aka tupac was one of the hardest workers... that was why he was one of the best rap artists ever... creating so many hits making millions and millions... even after his past. that machiavelli ??
Also... if you depend on the luck of heads and tails... you can flip heads 10 times in a row. it's possible and it's always 50/50.