Is Success Just Fate or Pre-destination?

February 5th, 2006 · 5 Comments

This weeks poll results from looking at successful and unsuccessful people and trying to determine the difference between them. Is it effort, luck (which could be defined as part of fate), what you know, who you know, or fate that decides whether you succeed or fail? Of course, this brings up the question of how you define success and whether we speak of personal or business success. I will leave that up to you for the moment, but if you will enter comments with your thoughts, it will be helpful as we exam the nature of success.

I’m working on an article about this question and it is important for many reasons, not the least of which is self-esteem and its affects on the growth of individuals. I realize this brings in the discussion of environment and nature, also, but there is no reason the discussion can’t be lively. Don’t answer with the first impulse, but examine your thoughts and beliefs and then let me know where you stand on the issue.

[tags]poll, success, fate, failure[/tags]

Tags: Leadership · Motivation

5 responses so far ↓

1 Sarah (2 comments.) // Feb 5, 2006 at 11:14 am

Success for me happens because I work hard for what I believe in. And in some cases you may class that as fate, or predetermined destiny, however I see it more as determination to succeed at something that I feel is achievable.

There is a definate correlation with me between success and effort. However there is an even closer relationship between success and working to one’s strengths. No matter how hard I work on something that i have absolutely no talent for I am likely to fail even with extreme amounts of effort. (However I know this therefore I don’t try to succeed at things that I don’t think i will manage to achieve.)

I hope that helps give you some insight.
2 Larry Hendrick // Feb 5, 2006 at 11:28 am

Thanks for the comment Sarah. Your thoughts align with Marcus Buckingham’s book, The One Thing You Need To Know. He writes about only working from your strengths and to stop trying to improve weaknesses.
3 Troy (9 comments.) // Feb 6, 2006 at 9:51 am

Larry! This is an excellent topic. Here is my $.02 [a la Jennifer Warwick @ the New Charm School]. Success is neither fate nor pre-determined. I agree with Sarah, success is a product of blood, sweat, and tears. And talent. And nurturing. And yes, even chance. Tangent: success is like a diamond… Yikes! Multi-faceted. Infinite possibilities. Hard. It’s value is largely in the eye of the beholder. It can be sentimental. It can be obtained by any number of means… some of which may be more “deserving” than others… BLA, Bla, bla… I agree with working to your strengths, a la Buckingham. But ultimately, I believe the primary determinant of success is the will to do what must be done. The will to sacrifice. There is always a price to pay. The will to persist. Failures will come. And the will to resist. You may be an amazing talent, but amazing talent won’t keep you out of the bars at night. Or keep you from selling out. Or worse, selling your soul…
4 Larry Hendrick // Feb 6, 2006 at 11:50 am

Wait just a minute, Troy…you just named hard work and fate as the answer. See, I knew this was going to be hard.
5 Dave J. (64 comments.) // Feb 9, 2006 at 9:19 pm

Or, is it ‘luck’? Dug up this interesting article at FC: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/72/realitycheck.html

“One way is to be open to new experiences. Unlucky people are stuck in routines. When they see something new, they want no part of it. Lucky people always want something new. They’re prepared to take risks and relaxed enough to see the opportunities in the first place.”