While most would call it luck, most self-help "insight porn" from the 1800s would say it is "fortunate" because you are in control of influencing it with your previous actions.
If a complete stranger became your big customer from the same scenario, that would be luck.
Sure, there's merit involved - but that's a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. There's a million competent people having basically the same drive and capability. The thing that makes a difference is luck. Period.
Please note: this doesn't mean that succesful people don't deserve the success - most times they do. It's just that there are many more people, equally deserving, that didn't have the same success. Let's treat those people better.
If "luck" is a dirty word in the startup world, I would at least like acknowledgement that the pathways to success are frequently not replicable.
Sure, nothing is certain, but some career paths are much more replicable than others. Maybe not everyone can work at a FAANGAMMATRON, there's a certain amount of luck, but "get a big tech job, work it for twenty-thirty-forty years" is still a fairly replicable path to moderate wealth.
You can look at the types of actions people took to get a big tech job (probably either "attend a prestigious university, apply straight to big tech" or "attend a decent state university, work any job in between for experience, apply to big tech") and there's probably a double-digit percent chance of you being able to replicate it.
You take any of the paths founders took to a successful company, it's almost impossible you'd achieve the same outcome trying to replicate it.
> You can look at the types of actions people took to get a big tech job (...) and there's probably a double-digit percent chance of you being able to replicate it.
You think more than 700 million people can get a big tech job?
Successful people are successful because they put themselves out into the world to expand their fortune. They seize common opportunities and make them great. Those opportunities come back around like the original comment.
The whole idea of "building one's fortune" or having a "fortune be told" instills in the idea that your actions are what influences your chance of being lucky in a positive light(never negative).
What if your actions are also a byproduct of luck?
E.g. if one is born retarded or with another mental disability, that prevents them from the actions that increase the chances of luck occurrence. A less extreme example is a person born with dysthymia who possesses less of the mental energy required to put themselves out there to expand their fortune and become successful.
Conversely, if one is lucky enough to be born with high innate intelligence and drive, coupled with a good upbringing and role models, they will more likely engage in actions that bring about luck and success.
One might argue that in many cases, people are not beholden to their genetics/circumstances and can rise above them. A dysthymic person can put forth the effort to get the help they need. I might argue that even this is a byproduct of luck in that the person was lucky enough to not have an incurable form of depression and also was lucky to have access to the resources to overcome it.
If a complete stranger became your big customer from the same scenario, that would be luck.