Hi Kasili,

Not sure if you are familiar with Malcom Gladwell's work where he describes that those who have been successful usually practice in some for or another for over 10,000 hours.... and he uses examples like Bill Gates and other famous folks that we don't always know about all their years of working up to their success.... highly recommend you read his work to help you with this question....

Hi, Patricia, thank you very much

I think it's all about skill and ambition, whether it is ingenuity or self-taught, you must have some knowledge and experience about what you want to start-up and grow. Bear in mind that the venture may not succeed on the first iteration but after many tries it can be very successful.

Best regards,

Debra

Today skill is very important for success.

To be a successful entrepreneur one must have an obsessive quality even if they have less than polished skills, they must excel in some areas; which areas exactly will vary, of course, but somewhere "chance favors a prepared mind."

I think and luck and skill (not or).

Not sure I would agree with above breakdown... as someone who practiced the piano for about 10 years... unless practice is considered a strategy....

very insightful responses on whether it is skill or luck and/or both skill and luck that contribute to the overall success. very much appreciated, guys.

Sometimes success requires both luck and skill.

Sometimes you need both.

All skilled persons without a streak of luck may not succeed.

But all the lucky persons without a streak of skill do succeed.

This is what I learned from my experience.

Both is necessary. But your basic behavior must be openness and a kind of pragnancy to risk and adventure. Your basic typ is that of an entrepreneur. your tolerance for frustration is high. Your load limit is also high. lucky is the person who is capable. Hesitation is not his feature. He is deceisive. Than  such a person will be lucky and successful. He is not waiting for luck, he is acting to gain luck..

Peter

Does success come from luck or skill?

Think success needs a lot of hard work, passion, perseverance, skill & a bit of luck i.e. on the right place at the right time with the right people (but don't count on the luck as it might never come - think of it as a bonus when it comes).

Generally speaking, luck -skill continuum has long been an issue of great interest in business and investment. The existing facts have shown that much of the success of business start- ups falls more towards the luck side of the continuum. However, as you have rightly pointed out, mere reliance on luck can be a risky undertaking because all businesses need to have a skillful manger in order for the likelihood of success to be persistent and predictive. In point of fact, the analytical, behavioral, and organizational experiences of a skilled manager can smooth out unforeseen risks when the entrepreneurs and managers have run out of luck. On this basis, I totally agree that mere luck is not enough and entrepreneurs should solidly rely on the knowledge and skills of business managers.

Best regards,

R. Biria

First of all, it is to be defined exactly what does mean "success"

Dear Mr. Mutambo;

The overlapping of luck with skills is so great in organizational studies that those who accept its existence have created a specific construct: Serendipty.

This serendipity is something like helping one's luck. Being in the right place at the right time, not always with the right product, but prepared to adapt it to the demands of the moment.

Dear colleagues, all responses are very informative with experiential inferences, very much appreciated.

Both attributes is necessary and complimentary to each other, but it needs determination and perseverance in the mix and never afraid of failure.

entrepreneurs who have high internal locus of control (belief in self) are more confident of their skills and are more successful than those who believe in external locus of control( fate/luck/destiny). 

Article Internal versus external locus of control and performance in...

Article Locus of control among entrepreneurs: A review

Article PERSONALITY CONGRUENCE, LOCUS OF CONTROL AND ENTREPRENEURIAL...

Experiencing failure is one of the best ways of learning and getting mature in any field.

For me, to be successful, you need to be smart and rational in your decisions also you have to work hard and get more experiences to feed your skills.

Hello Kasili,

Frankly, if entrepreneurship was just about luck, then how would it be distinguished from a pure bet? Why accumulate knowledge about market context, abilities, etc...? Indeed, why entrepreneurship theory at all?

I believe that there is a luck factor involved because of the fundamental uncertainty of the future around profit opportunities. But I also believe that this only part of the equation. The other part is due to entrepreneurial judgment. Entrepreneurs use institutional reference points to cope with uncertainty. And for this, they need "skill," "talent," etc.

Cheers,

Gabriel

Success due to luck is incidental by and large influenced by external factors. Where as success due to skill intentional by and large driven by internal attributes.  . 

Success as an entrepreneur is linked to the ability to forecast and understand the market. The most successful new products and services are often being released with a new twist that supports a customer need.  Understanding your customer and their demands is what will make you successful.  This does need to be tied to the environment (external) factors that can impact the business.  The highest rate of failure is due to the lack of available funds or ability to obtain financing to support the growth of the business.  

Success comes from being prepared for opportunity. Opportunities surround us at all times. If you are prepared to take opportunity when it arises, it may seem like luck. You have just improved your chances of being "lucky". We can only see the opportunities that are within our consciousness. If you know where you want to go, figure out the knowledge, skills and abilities that are needed to get there. Then each day do one thing to acquire a little more of what you need. As you do this, you will increase your focus, intention, and readiness to act on opportunity. In the process, the people you meet may also direct opportunities your way.

Non of the above the focus on success is what brings success skill one can hire if they lack 

Both. Luck and Timing are certainly important but meticulous analysis (which is a skill) and mindset (e.g. innovation, entrepreneurial spirit) play an important role as well.

Best

Roland

In the area of games or life activities, the luck can be work, but in the Business life  I agreed with Ms.Rachdi Chaymaa's opinion

Success comes from hard work, performance, efficiency, and book science on business opportunities and bottlenecks.

No effort, no success.

You need to be prepared with skills when luck comes to you.

That is correct, focus on skills to exploit opportunity, while seeking luck to succeed

Luck based success is incidental or accidental while the skill driven success is intentional and purposeful one.

I believe luck itself cannot make success all times, and also skill, by itself cannot make success. Success come from both luck or skill.

You are right skill is critical though luck is at times needed for positioning

Dr Muniapan, you are welcome, you need skill with some luck to succeed?

Both are essential pre-requisites 

indeed experiential research confirms the same

Thank you,  inbuilt-capacity to identify and seize opportunity first gives  luck

On that stage the decisive factor is a high situation awareness (meant is "level 3" following Endsley's theory of situation awareness) and figuring out what your prospective customer's need. Or to put in other words: Building a large number of deep personal contacts "to give fortune a chance". Then: Remember Kahneman's finding of "illusion of skill". Finally, to cite Warren Buffet (in the Robert Miles' biography of W. Buffet, 2004, p. 159): "My conclusion from my own experience and from much observation of other businesses is that a good managerial record (...) is far more a function of what business boat you get into than it is of how effectively you row (...)."

Thank you for your views, for the expanded vision of skill vs luck in achieving business growth and profitability.

Success, skill and luck, all three together is a TRIO of equal partners.

Without skill no SUCCESS,

Without luck, skill can take a lot of time to reach SUCCESS,

Be modest and happy, that luck was the precursor of your SUCCESS.

Reto J. Strasser [email protected]

Hofgutweg 51B

CH 3400 Burgdorf

Switzerland

Success surely comes from skill today.

thanks dr Reto

Success is about mind set and attracting what you want in life one can have no skills but the focus of what she wants can engage technocrats it's all about mind set there's nothing on this mother land as luck

At the entrance of an old house in the Mohave desert was written :

"If you really need a HAND, look at the end of your arm......"

This is not the definition of Success, but its precursor. Good luck

[email protected]

I worked on a problem on and off for 25 years. How to get heat easily through a thick wall, in essence how to cheat conduction. Then one day I happened to draw a version of the problem, cross it out, draw a simpler version, again cross it out, and draw a third version. Then I said to myself I want to move the heat from here to here, drawing an arrow between the third version and then second version. Then I said to myself, no, I really want to move the heat from the second version to the first version... second arrow. slowly it dawned on me what i had done, split the problem into 2 movements. I contemplated the possibility of each of the movements being possible in themselves.

My skill in my field had allowed me to recognize my luck.

I have goose bumps and am humbled to bring you the HEATGATE.

On the backside of a daily calendar was written:

Stubbornness is the mother of invention.

Try it, it works, good luck

Reto

Success comes from skills and doggedness

Wisdom has it that success comes from ones skill and positing in creating luck. However, others are assisted by someone known to them to grab luck to rise to the peak of success

To succeed you have to be a flexible person that makes it easy to adjust your behavior and acquire the skills that qualify you to achieve your dream.

Skills

Men's success

".. is in trust, intelligence, determination, energy, and will" Len Leonid Mizrah see link https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_mans_power_in_truth

Success has many sources: skills are important, no doubt. But skills allone never will make a person successful.

Which kind of success? I can be successful in changeing myself twards better behaviour. I can do it myself without anybodys help.

Or f.e. I want to be successful as a start up or as a scientist at research. For this case I need the cooperation of many other people: coworkers, partners, supplyers customers, compeditors a.s.o. And here I need skills and luck. I would say due to my experiences 75 % skills, 25 % luck.

Peter

it comes from together.

Persistence, determination, initiative, intuition, and drive to acquire accumulated professional skills and knowledge to rise to the peak of success

It comes from both luck and skill togethe

success comes from lucky skills

Luck could come from the persons in higher authority to assist an individual in lower ranks climb up in overtaking others to the coveted job pinnacle

Being an entrepreneur myself, I am in the position to answer your question:

Success is 99% hard work, skills and full motivation and 1% luck.

You achieve success by failing many times. The secret is never give up. Keep trying, keep going. If you fall, stand up again, and again, and again. Then success will come. Beware: sometimes, other people are not ready for accepting innovating ideas. Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and researcher, resumed it this way: "I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work". For success you don't need inspiration, you need perspiration!

Just hold on and keep proposing new ideas, services, products. If what you propose is needed, and useful, it will be a success, for sure. Utility is success.

I would certainly, I agree with you. The question was framed from the entrepreneur point of view. Although, skills, hard work ,motivation and/or luck come to play in determining success

Skill is the very basic essence for every human beings. Every human being while performing his action for his career contribution he carries the same with his intelligence supported by his skill in the sense that while planning for his career , he must have carried out his performance under the intelligence ,study ,knowledge , which may help him to carry out his action for his life line .

For every human beings he cannot afford to ignore our destiny ,I have observed that a first class student just as the time of his examination has to pass thru his several health problem & he could not appear in the examination this I view & consider the same as luck .

For success generally every person move on a successful line track ,when in this question luck has been indicated , I do not wish to ignore destiny the function of which remains either positive or negative . In case of competitive examination one can go to the same successfully but at the same time he has to appear for an final interview which determine his success or otherwise & in case if he fail in final interview with all the intelligence & knowledge he may have to come back

This is my personal opinion

Yes, to quote, Churchill former UK War can make your luck through hard work, self-study & Skill development. Others argue that through intuition and determination to succeed. Also, others seek friends and godfather for positioning to ahead of the cue, and so on. Others believe in Almighty the Creator for luck. Others may have talent as a luck.

I would like to add this: I think actually you are looking for a definition for "Luck", in terms of entrepreuneurship. I would say that luck is everything you do to be aware of possible coming obstacles, troubles, and any kind of problems related to your person, your team and your business and be prepared to cope with those obstacles with fast & creative solutions when shit happens. Call it prevoyance. foresight, vision, forethought...

Have a nice day Mr. Kasili Mutambo

Obviously, both, but for luck, you have to catch it and understand it: this is called serendipidity!

Fully agree with Yaroslav de Kouchkovsky . Serendipity is a beautiful concept not to be overlooked.

It can come from both luck and skills.

Yes, both luck and skill, which one will you vouch for?

89% transpiration, 10% inspiration and 1% luck

Sascha Kraus

Success is resultant of Skill and Luck,Major is Skill and Minor is Luck.

I agree that empirically skill has a greater role. That why the UK former Prime Minister Winston Churchill was quoted " create your own luck'. However, luck can be created by those high up the ladder in fast tracking those known to them to positions of power or authority for material success.

'Luck' meets a prepared person. You have to be skilled to be a beneficiary of 'luck' when it surfaces.

Alright, make your luck through skill development

Skills prepare the ground for luck. If luck meets an unskilled person, success might be denied but a skilled person has a high potential to succeed when the luck comes.

Definitely skills

90% skills and 10% luck

Thanks. Your answer is conclusive. Could you share with us your methodology and data?

It comes from both.

Both of them

100% skill

100% skill could be ideal. Some level of mentorship or inspiration also plays some role

Although luck is a factor, skill is paramount.

Somewhat correct, but balancing act is needed not solely depend on luck

Skill

first do the work which has given to you and learn something from your work and then you will be succed in your filed of work, though luck is a factor but skill and hard work are paramountsucce

It works for sure, when work and luck go together.

Try it. With my regards

OTER

One can make his/her luck through hard work, at times some people are assisted by others at right time and place through luck to get the top.

Hard work and luck both is important.

skill needs 'luck' to get an opportunity to be expressed,,,,,,otherwise skill is useless.

Dear Shubhransu, You could be right you need both luck and skills to guarantee success. Often, luck is hard to come by, Therefore, skill is the only way out.