I think a lot of people write off that second part all too easily, taking advantage of opportunity and especially just showing up day after day consistently for however long it takes. We're conditioned to want the hockey stick growth or deathly afraid of "walking dead" companies, but the path to success is rarely that straight forward.
I can point to a number of friends that tried their own thing and threw in the towel, so to speak, too early. From my view it usually boiled down to multiple bad decisions that stacked up or the inability to be realistic with how to run a company (trying to start something limited capital or domain knowledge/skill, calculated runways being too short, etc). That said, after all was said and done none of them really complained about "luck" or blamed external factors, they gave it their shot(s) and understood the risks.
Maybe a bit harsh and my opinion, but I feel like that most people that keep harping heavily on the luck argument for their failures just use it as a copout for their own incompetence. And i'm saying this as someone that understands I've been extremely lucky. If i were to fail outright tomorrow I would not blame it on anything but myself.
Luck probably plays a huge factor (maybe the ultimate factor) in building billion vs million dollar companies, but when you distill it down to something smaller you absolutely can manage your "luck" and it doesn't require getting money from your parents or having capital to try 5x times or whatever that people here keep spouting.
I can point to a number of friends that tried their own thing and threw in the towel, so to speak, too early. From my view it usually boiled down to multiple bad decisions that stacked up or the inability to be realistic with how to run a company (trying to start something limited capital or domain knowledge/skill, calculated runways being too short, etc). That said, after all was said and done none of them really complained about "luck" or blamed external factors, they gave it their shot(s) and understood the risks.
Maybe a bit harsh and my opinion, but I feel like that most people that keep harping heavily on the luck argument for their failures just use it as a copout for their own incompetence. And i'm saying this as someone that understands I've been extremely lucky. If i were to fail outright tomorrow I would not blame it on anything but myself.
Luck probably plays a huge factor (maybe the ultimate factor) in building billion vs million dollar companies, but when you distill it down to something smaller you absolutely can manage your "luck" and it doesn't require getting money from your parents or having capital to try 5x times or whatever that people here keep spouting.