Good luck Chuck.
They told us to work, hard. They told us hard work pays off. They told us success stories. But these stories are discriminatingly selected. They told us stories that occur in one life out of millions. We buy it; and we wait for our turn. Which probably wouldn’t come. Such futility is borne not from lies, but half-truths. Yet it gives us hope, a hope to be that one in a million, a hope to step above heads.
We feed on these hopes; even the cynics hold these hopes in. Some devour it, some eat a portion; the cynics suffer from anorexia – on hope. We need it, yet it kills us. What’re the chances that we’re the one in a million? These hopes, function as comfortable self deceit.
We all think we’re special, we’re told we are. That’s a lie as well. We’re just a face in the crowd, forgotten. Hard work’s not the most paramount prerequisite of success; luck is. Dreams, ideals, beliefs, it doesn’t weigh so much as luck. Even if there’s luck, not everyone’s made an opportunist.
There’s so many factors weighing in, other than hard work. Whoever told us that hard work could get us anywhere, was lying. Chances are, your hard work would probably end up as cash crop for the luckier few.
Good luck, in life, continue hoping.
I’m no pessimist, I’m merely realistic.
What a pessimistic view..
As it is with this world, nothing is definite. Hard work does not guarantee definite success. However, hard work does improve your chances of obtaining success. There is no way to quantify this relationship between hard work and success, but the logic that hard work increases your odds is irrefutable. Also, success is subjective to different individuals. Your claim of “one in a million” is vague and doesn’t represent the true nature of how hard work relates to success in our society.
We all need to accept the fact that some individuals are just “luckier” than others. However, there is always the hope to excel and succeed, and that hope should function as a motivating factor, not as a form of “comfortable self deceit”
All of us are indeed special in the sense that we are all DIFFERENT. You view it as a “face in the crowd”, but I view it as a crowd of different faces, each unique with their own appeal.
To say that luck is the most paramount prerequisite of success is making an assumption. There is no definite method to prove this claim. How can you weigh dreams, ideals, beliefs and hard work against luck?
We live in an imperfect and unfair world. However, that should not stop us from striving for success, because if there is no input of hard work, you will almost certainly NEVER achieve success. While it is true that your hard work might end up benefiting others, I believe what goes around will come around, because we live in a interconnected, interdependent and interrelated world.
An Optimist.
I do agree, hard work is a prerequisite as I’ve mentioned, and as well, I do not advocate the giving up of hard work due to the factor of luck. But my point is, no matter how optimistic you can be, reality just isn’t lady luck for the average joe. Hard work isn’t everything, and I, in all honesty, consider that those who complain about not achieving success although they’ve worked hard, pathetic.
Life’s like that, you can’t work hard to get all four aces in your hand. You play by whatever you’re dealt with; that uncertainty in life just so happens to be more tangible, playing a larger role than hard work itself. Being “unique” isn’t credit. Hinging on being special is a liability. And we all suffer from such a liability from time to time, no?
Simply put, too many people equate hard work to success, and it’s sad when this assumption falls flat on their faces. We cannot just learn to be hardworking, we must learn to deal, with reality, with the cards in our hands. No one gives two damns about our whining of a bad hand. No one’s a more special player than another at the poker table.
A realist.