I speak to many smart people in my wanderings around the tech world – educated, large vocabulary, neat stories, good experience, etc. The “successful” ones, with terrifically successful companies, fame and fortune, share most of theses traits with the lesser successful ones. Which got me thinking: what IS the difference between the crazy-successful smart people and the run-of-the-mill MIT/Harvard/etc. PhD/MBA/whatever???

The answer, I’m very, very sorry to say, is (mostly) a blend of timing, whether it’s when he/she graduated, who was on their floor in school, what they happened to focus on, and when they had the time to get involved in a venture – either because they found time or money due to an inheritance or lost their job: all of these can be found under the broad category: luck.

Sure I’m simplifying this, but really, if you know enough people, you will agree that there are only a very few highly successful people in business (not Hollywood. That’s another planet…).  And if you’re really honest, you’ll also note that the success that they’ve achieved is only partly derived from their intellect, drive, focus, talent, and anything else that they have going for them. The rest has to be chalked up to luck.

So, I guess that the lesson here is, in business, make sure that you’ve got as many “lottery tickets” as you can. You do that by keeping your eyes open to opportunities, work with great people and always be open to take a reasonable risk. You just might get lucky!