What Is Luck and What Is Not

The philosopher and writer Nassim Taleb once said that, “Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel, or a private jet.” His point was that certain accomplishments are within the reasonable grasp of someone making incremental gains each day. Outsized success and outlier accomplishments require that and extreme luck or timing. This is worth considering for all of us who grew up being told the world was a meritocracy. Of course, it isn’t. Plenty of brilliant people fail to succeed for all sorts of reasons, and plenty of not-so-brilliant people find themselves successful beyond their wildest dreams. The world is a random, even cruel, place that does not always reward merit or hard work or skill. Sometimes it does, but not always. Still, perhaps a more usable and practical distinction to make is not between hard work and luck, but between what is up to us and what is not up to us. This is the distinction that the Stoics tried to make and to think about always. Pioneering new research in science—that’s up to us. Being recognized for that work (e.g. winning a Nobel) is not. A committee decides that. The media decides that. Becoming an expert in a field, that’s up to us. We do that by reading, by studying, by going out and experiencing things. Being hired as a professor at Harvard to teach that expertise is not (think of all the people who weren’t hired there over the years because they were female, or Jewish, or Black). Writing a prize-worthy piece of literature—up to us. That’s time in front of the keyboard. That’s up to our genius. Being named as a finalist for the Booker Prize is not. It’s not that luck, exactly, decides these things, but it is very clearly other people that make the decision. Marcus Aurelius said that the key to life was to tie our sanity—our sense of satisfaction—to our own actions. To tie it to what other people say or do (that was his definition of ambition) was to set ourselves up to be hurt and disappointed. It’s insanity. And it misses the point. Do the work. Be happy with that. Everything else is irrelevant. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  What is luck and what is not? The philosopher and writer Nassim Taleb once said that "hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel, or a private jet." His point was that certain accomplishments are within reasonable grasp of someone making incremental gains each day. Outsize success and outlier accomplishments require that and extreme luck or timing. This is worth considering for all of us who grew up being told that the world was a meritocracy. Of course, it isn't. Plenty of brilliant people fail to succeed for all sorts of reasons, and plenty of not-so-brilliant people find themselves

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  successful beyond their wildest dreams. The world is a random, even cruel, place that does not always reward merit, or hard work, or skill. Sometimes it does, but not always. Still, perhaps a more usable and practical distinction to make is not between hard work and luck, but between what is up to us and what is not up to us. This is the distinction that the Stoics tried to make and think about always. Pioneering new research in science? That's up to us. Being recognized for that work, that is, winning a Nobel, is not. A committee decides that. The media decides that. Becoming an expert in a field, that's up to us.

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  We do that by reading, by studying, by going out and experiencing things. Being hired as a professor at Harvard to teach that expertise is not. Think of all the people who weren't hired there over the years because they were female or Jewish or black. Writing a prize-worthy piece of literature, up to us. That's time in front of the keyboard. That's up to our genius. Being named as a finalist for the Booker Prize is not. It's not that luck exactly decides these things, but it is very clearly other people that make that decision. Marcus Aurelius said that the key to life was to tie our sanity, our sense of satisfaction, to our own actions.

• 2:34Ryan Holiday?

  To tie it to what other people say or do, his definition of ambition, was to set ourselves up to be hurt and disappointed. It's insanity, really, and it misses the point. Do the work, be happy with that. Everything else is irrelevant. Anger is a problem that faces us all. We don't all have anger problems, but anger is a problem for everyone. You can learn how to control your temper with Daily Stoic's new course, Taming Your Temper: The 10-Day Stoic Guide to Controlling Your Anger. Stoics recognized anger as a weakness to be mastered. They knew that anger left unchecked would consume you and take over your life. We can help you. I hope you check it out. Go to dailystoic.com/anger.