I think this is a story about working really fucking hard and then naturally having cool things come your way as a payoff. What you want might be 4 years away, but opportunities you don't think a lot about like this can be yet another motivator.
But you sound like you're falling for Survivorship bias.
I think the underlying point trying to be made though can be summed up by this quote from a movie clip I saw channel surfing in a hotel the other day: "You want the job after this job, but you need this job first."
There exists a reasonably reliable path to success for most people:
- Look at the people whom you consider to be successful who got there mostly through hard work.
- Do what they did, think about the things they think about, obsess over it. Let it consume you. You won't be good at first, but keep doing it. It will take time.
- Don't think you know better.
- Try not to spend too much time or too many brain cycles on recreation or non-work-focused friendships/relationships. (If you choose to do this, that's fine, but recognize that it is a choice that will define your future.)
That's about it.
However, there is no reliable path for a woman in Saudi Arabia, or poor child with drug addict parents, or the family of the lowest caste in India who have no assets. Surely they can help little by little and better their future generations, but they will by and large be gone before anyone gets a "windfall".
So strictly speaking, that value was always coming your way you just received it early for less effort than otherwise. Unless you're scrumping that is ;-)
Not sure how this ties in to our metaphor here but it kind of feels poignant.
I can't believe you responded in a thread about not looking at one guy who worked hard and succeeded by telling people to "copy one guy, work hard, and you'll succeed".
I love your spin on it though. Have no friends!
There's a lot of talk about survivorship bias, but I have to admit, in 10 years that I've worked in game development, I've never seen anyone like that.
Either people change careers, industries or you can see that they're already burned out. I've never seen a good performer with a lot of experience in the same field and career, and ambition for more, who would be stuck.
That's almost the definition of survivorship bias.
Hard work pays off quite often. Hard work opens you up to opportunities quite often too, especially in an information-related career.
You made a bunch of typos in "tremendous amount of luck" :)