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Comment by bad_user | Hacker News Reader

Great people make their own luck.

The Chef took a risk that may have impacted his career negatively. That's not necessarily luck, that's an investment that payed off. And if you don't want the Chef to get rich, then don't offer him any stock - but then you do need to pay a higher salary.

It's funny that Zynga tries to paint this negative picture of Google's IPO, when clearly at Google everybody won tenfold, including founders and investors and being good employers is partly the reason for that. Zynga will never be Google and it starts with their attitude towards their employees.

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There are a million great people people out there that you don't know who aren't lucky. Having money doesn't make you great, being great makes you great.

I do think that the harder you work and the the more opportunity you give yourself to get lucky the better your chances are to be successful. But believe me, luck plays a huge part in everyones life no matter how smart or great you think you are.

Yes, but the odds of having 20 million drop from the sky in front of you are zero. Even people winning the lottery have to buy a ticket first and even then, the chances are greater for being hit by a car the next day.

So there's a huge difference between that and investing your time and skill in something based on making educated guesses. Which is why I wouldn't call it luck.

Also, wealth is relative. Some people simply don't care that much about money if they earn enough to live comfortably, especially since pursuing money is in general painful for everybody.

So there's a huge difference between that and investing your time and skill in something based on making educated guesses. Which is why I wouldn't call it luck.

That's an absurd definition of luck. What you have to do is look at the distribution of outcomes in the population. If those outcomes are widely distributed, it depends on luck. The characteristics of the underlying population are irrelevant.

Like Vincent Van Gogh. Only sold one painting in his lifetime.

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