Many people claim that success comes only as a result of hard work, while others believe that it is mostly the result of good fortune. I believe that the former is true; success is only achieved by people who are diligent, hard-working and perseverant. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

To begin with, success is not the result of a single lucky strike, but is instead the cumulative result of a lot of hard work. Success happens over time and only after a series of correct decisions and small victories. A stroke of luck, in contrast, is generally perceived to be a one-time event. The experience of my uncle, a successful entrepreneur, is a good example of what I mean. He runs a very profitable technology firm which manufactures and sells a wide range of products. His business started very small when he invested his savings to bring to market a single product and hired his first employee. When his single product found a market, my uncle compounded his success with a series of profitable mergers that increased the size of his company. His company later grew from a single employee to include a staff of dozens. While my uncle might have been lucky at one stage of his company’s growth, the long-term success of his firm cannot simply be ascribed to good fortune.

Secondly, people today tend to misattribute the results of hard work and diligence to simple blind luck. Too many people ascribe to luck things which are actually the result of careful planning, research and “business smarts.” For example, some people said that my uncle was lucky when his initial product offering was successful. However, he was confident that his product would be a hit even before he started manufacturing it. This is because he spent thousands of dollars on market research and focus groups. It was this investment, not luck, which ensured the early success of his business. Likewise, when his small firm completed its first merger just before the target company rose to prominence some called him lucky. In this case, though, my uncle had spent weeks interviewing the research and development team at that company and predicted their success based on what they told him about their planning. Had he not been confident of their success, he would not have completed the merger. Again, this victory was the result of diligence rather than luck, despite what some observers say about it.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that success comes as a result of hard work, rather than good fortune. This is because success is a gradual and cumulative process, and because the public’s conception of luck is very superficial and hollow.