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Many successful companies and individuals fall into that trap of being unable to differentiate between talent and luck. I'm certainly not saying Microsoft doesn't employ plenty of very talented individuals. But it also takes some fortunate twists of fate to succeed, which were completely out of Microsoft's control. Success is never guaranteed.

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Probably didn't help that Microsoft was founded at the end of the Corporate Raider era either. If you ran a company and decided that one of your big successes was being in the right place at the right time, you might keep a bigger war chest to get you through your next bad luck window. But that pile of liquid assets paints a big bullseye on your forehead.

It was 'better' to just assume you were awesome and hope your luck held for years on end. And if it didn't, then you could tell a story about how talent got you big and bad luck took you out. No, it was luck both ways or skill both ways.

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