I don't think there is success formula for an individual - just that if the termites nest of humanity throws enough bodies at the wall, one will bounce through.
It's not purely luck. But I think the only predictor of success, is to be in the game.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
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"I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It's because of them I'm doing it myself."
― Albert Einstein
From: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-...
Bill Gates was an impossible child who was shoved into an ultra-lux boarding school that happened to have a computer. Zuckerberg does not know the life outside of Westchester, Harvard, and his compound in California.
How many brilliant people are out there who have to waste their brilliance on not taking risks? On just making sure they can pay rent?
We all want to go to the Moon, but some people are born in orbit to get a solid head start, and the rest need to overcome gravity first, before they even get a shot.
Focus and drive is the ticket to even get into the ballpark.
I really think it’s this. There’s an almost measurable synergy that occurs when you put yourself out there.
A bunch of the new tech billionaires had a different path, going through certain US universities at the right time for example.
But nowadays there's also this new community of startups that happen to live in the right location and get the right amount of access to investors.
It’s funny that the exceptions I can think of really stand out. One sales exec team I worked with consisted of short bald guys with similar names. It stands out a decade later! Even then, their boss was a Ivy League bro with a beard and good hair.
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"Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses, That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend The night the seas rushed in, The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him?
Each page a victory At whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper?
So many particulars. So many questions."
I am definitely not for throwing out the industrial revolution baby with the Victorian capital structure bath water, but looking at the robber barons that crop up with each generation I wonder if there is a different way of allocating capital, decentralised decision making that can more properly / equally reward effort and contribution. Giving almost all the wealth to the financiers does not seem the right approach.
Then again, I wish Warren Buffet ran my pension fund.
Jeff and Elon might not do much now.
But, it was their work at the start to kick things off. That was a difference maker.
Most of the outright evil in the world isn't committed by well known public figures.
It happens in the dark, via anonymous socialites.
The key to success is to know your weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck. For example Mark Zuckerberg didn't deliver a marvel of Engineering when he developed what would later become Facebook. He was just there at the right time and place.
Of course not, they made React after all.
Though it is possible that he:
> [knew his] weaknesses and compensate for them by hiring the right people, combined with a large amount of luck.
hired one or two good engineers
Some people will think that is a compliment.
Some people will recognize that as an insult.
I don't think this is true. In my experience, the most successful people are overwhelmingly good at social skills. Without those you won't be a manager, won't hit the C-suite, won't make the big bucks (with a few exceptions, but even the best engineers have to have the social/comms skills to work in a team or lead a project).
Do, exactly, what Roosevelt said.
Give 100% of your attention to pulling your socks up.
Most introverts I meet are merely frozen with terror.
They're paralyzed by fear of their weakness.
Most highly successful people, are highly successful because they've worked bloody hard at it. Cocktail parties are a nightmare, sadly it's like going to the gym.
That’s not to say you can’t get better at it. I’m an introvert photographer and I’ve gotten better at socializing over the years, but I’ve also learned to play into my strengths.
Good pitch for the people predisposed to an optimistic worldview, I guess.