Success in running and business...is it luck?

Business offers more opportunities for "lucky breaks" than distance running.  The rules change more frequently to favor one over another, the psychology of the market changes making one product more appealing than another, and the ability to manipulate your success is more pronounced (if not more understood).  But in the end, both running and business are the same in that you can choose what aspect of your success or failure you focus on: your luck or your effort.

Kara Goucher hates the word "fluke".  Why?  Because people apply it to results she views as being generated through her painstaking preparation and hard work.  She finds it demeaning.  Because it is.  I imagine if you called the iPhone a fluke Steve Jobs would feel the same way.  He spent years of hard work creating his masterpiece.  Sure there may have been some luck involved...but is that really why the iPhone was so successful?

Seth Godin just wrote a post in reference to a review of his book The Dip, that hits the nail on the head.  You can look at your success as being at the mercy of randomness, luck, or fluke occurrences.  Or you can look at your success as being the result of painstaking preparation, hard work, and the fact that you were ready to benefit from that luck when it came your way.

There are plenty of people who think each way.  As a general rule, those who think the former are less successful than those who think the latter.  Successful people focus on effort.  They don't deny the existence of luck, but they ignore it.  They have work to do.  This applies whether they are pursuing success in athletics, business, education or family life. 

You may not think this applies to you.  Well, good luck.