As someone who is actively pursuing entrepreneurship for the past year, while doing it on-off pretty much from the beginning of my career (about 15 years), as well as following other solopreneurs/indie-hackers on social network--I move closer and closer to the realization that it's majorly luck based. Let me explain.
Yes, it's humbleness to say that it's all luck, and I think it's egocentric to claim that you know how entrepreneurship work, once you succeed, let alone build frameworks/coaching programs around it.
However, based on my observation, as well as my experience, luck plays a major role in success in entrepreneurship/business/work. You could get lucky because your manager likes your personality, or you can be a hard-working asshole that no one loves and/or respects. The same goes to other aspects. You could get lucky because YouTube/Twitter decided to pick up your content and show it to millions of people, thus earning you customers/followers/brand.
I do think that the only formula for success is when preparation meets luck. As cliché as it sounds, if you put in the work, but get unlucky, you won't succeed. If luck finds you, but you have no product or your videos suck, you won't succeed. It's only when you work constantly, improve your craft, and continue to stay *active*, then, when luck finds you, you might succeed.
And this is what I am going to teach my kids, and this is the answer I'll provide to a random person on the streets.
I struggled 10 years to find a SaaS product that worked, launched 20 projects (and there was no AI back then), way before the "indie hackers" movement.
Now our company is doing a few millions a year, highly profitable, no VC or external investment.
Was luck that I decided to try over and over? I might got lucky, but I persisted for so long while many others gave up. For me, making your own luck fits very well. Working hard gives you opportunities and you learn in the process so on next try, chances are better. Last projects got more and more profitable as I learned how to identify what people want.
Sure, I don't deny the importance of hard work. But then again, how many people worked hard, the same hard as you or maybe even harder, and it took them 20 years to get to 1M? 30 years? How many never made it despite working hard?
I feel like we, humans, have some repulsion towards "getting lucky". It's seen as a discredit of our hard work, and yet, I think luck plays way bigger role. And it's spread across the board starting from the type of community you are born into, the education you get, the access to connection you and/or your family has, the money, etc.
It doesn't mean that it's only luck. As I said, you can get lucky a thousand time but if you didn't prepare for it, then it's not worth it. This is why consistency is important.
Yes, it's humbleness to say that it's all luck, and I think it's egocentric to claim that you know how entrepreneurship work, once you succeed, let alone build frameworks/coaching programs around it.
However, based on my observation, as well as my experience, luck plays a major role in success in entrepreneurship/business/work. You could get lucky because your manager likes your personality, or you can be a hard-working asshole that no one loves and/or respects. The same goes to other aspects. You could get lucky because YouTube/Twitter decided to pick up your content and show it to millions of people, thus earning you customers/followers/brand.
I do think that the only formula for success is when preparation meets luck. As cliché as it sounds, if you put in the work, but get unlucky, you won't succeed. If luck finds you, but you have no product or your videos suck, you won't succeed. It's only when you work constantly, improve your craft, and continue to stay *active*, then, when luck finds you, you might succeed.
And this is what I am going to teach my kids, and this is the answer I'll provide to a random person on the streets.