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Why it’s often luck, not talent, that takes us to the top
No one likes to admit it – but life’s lottery has a big role to play in success.
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Luck often seemed to be used as a device to frame one’s success as flowing from spontaneous or serendipitous external recognition rather than calculated intention.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Emma Jacobs
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In Never, Rick Astley’s recent autobiography, the 80s pop star describes how looking back over decades gave him a fresh appreciation of one critical factor in his success.
“You see how much luck and chance is involved in your life and career,” he writes in the prologue. “You can have drive and ambition and talent, but there’s a huge amount of luck involved too: you know, someone wrote a 3½-minute pop song in 1987, and my life completely changed as a result of that. It’s ridiculous, really.”
