Successful people like to believe that their decisions were the reason for their achievements. People who consider themselves less successful usually blame luck or the conspiracy of others. Both are a little true. But the inverse also holds – success may include luck and the conspiracy of helpful folks. Failure may be due to bad decisions.
Luck plays a huge part in life. Someone born as son or daughter of an emperor will have a much different life than those born to a peasant. And in most societies each son will have a far different life than the daughter. Nor does anything but luck contribute to a person’s genetic attributes or lack of them – beauty, brains, or strength. Not to mention the environment and times in which one appears in the world .
Decisions remain critical. Many are irrelevant, like what to eat for lunch, although a pattern of decisions can determine one’s weight and health. A few decisions are obviously extremely important in future paths – but again, often it is the pattern rather than individual coin toss .
And then there are the “black swan events” _ getting hit by a truck or meeting a billionaire. As they say “life is funny that way.”
All in all, most of us place too much emphasis on one side or another. The best decision is usually to redefine “success” to match your reality .
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 