'Captain America' star Anthony Mackie: 'We're lying to our kids' when we say success comes just from hard work—luck is key, too
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Marvel star Anthony Mackie says success has as much to do with luck and connections as with talent. Highly successful people like Mark Cuban agree.

Put simply, being in the right place at the right time, and having connections, can be as important as having the skills and experience.

  • Reyali@lemm.ee
    3·
    5 days ago

    Talent, dedication, and luck. Spot on.

    I am very successful in my career and earn more than my school-age self ever expected (tbf, I expected to be a teacher). I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all three, though.

    Lucky points include:

    • Being the kid of small business owners who gave me/made me get a job with them at 16.
    • Knowing someone at a company who recommended me for an internship.
    • Working adjacent to a badass development team that made the best proof of concept to build a new app, so they brought me to their team to support it.
    • My Lead retiring so I was able to move to her level after only a couple years.

    I wouldn’t have gotten those opportunities if I didn’t also have the dedication and talent, but luck was a huge factor.

    I have tried the metaphor that luck opened doors for me, but I had to get to and walk through them. I will never take where I am today for granted.

    • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      5 days ago

      Those three pillars are my best assessment of how I managed to find myself as the singular best in the world at what I was doing (nothing career worthy, though it did point me in that direction). I was lucky that my parents got me started on it at a very young age, my other hobbies were strongly synergistic meaning I was spending much of my time developing related skills, when I first got into it I just randomly happened to meet up with the group that I reached the top with, so being surrounded by such excellent company had a massive impact. I met so many people who had very strong talent and dedicated themselves, but just never got the breaks I did. But like you said, it was largely because I already had the talent from early childhood learning and had remained dedicated my whole life that I was capable of fitting in when I did meet the right people.

      I strongly recommend everyone read Chris Hadfield’s “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth,” as he argues very strongly, with some great anecdotes from his life, for the importance of preparing to receive good luck.