Is it Luck or Effort?

Pen Cai - a pot of delicacies comprising abalone, scallops, prawns, mushrooms, pork trotter, etc.. A symbol of wealth and presperity in Chinese culture.

Chinese New Year celebration is the time when we meet up with relatives and friends, some of whom we have not met for a long time. Apart from exchanging mandarin oranges, giving red packets to children and munching New Year cookies, we catch up on each other’s progress in life.

Some have not changed a single bit. Some remain status quo. Some might not have done so well, but due to festive moods, nobody can tell from their outer appearance. According to Chinese customs, we only want to say and hear ‘the good things’ during the celebration anyway.

I had a chance to visit a very big bungalow house belongs to a distant relative when I was in Melaka for Chinese New Year celebration two weeks ago. He bought the piece of land that the house sits on during the financial crisis around 1997 and only started and finished constructing his bungalow recently. The double-storey bungalow has six bedrooms. Each of his children has a specially designed bedroom of their own completed with pinkish colour theme for his daughters and non-pinkish theme for his sons.

The bungalow comes with a garden punctuated with a hut for alfresco dining, a Japanese carp pond, a huge living room with the latest home entertainment system, a big study room, dry and wet kitchen, all come with the best flooring materials available in the market. What impressed me most are the thoughts that have gone into each design. The location of each room and the facing of the house are built based on Feng Shui theory. The material and color of the flooring and the spiral staircase are chosen based on aesthetics and weather endurance. Up high hanging from the ceiling in front of the spiral staircase is a stunning chandelier equipped with motorized chain to facilitate the lowering of the chandelier for ease of maintenance.

Chinese often wish each other good luck, prosperity and wealth during the Chinese New Year celebration. My distant relative is definitely one of those who have acquired lots of wealth and prosperity in the past years. I could sense it through his explanation as he walked me around his bungalow.

And he is not the only one. A lot of my friends have gotten promotion, moved to bigger houses and driven larger cars. As a result of good food and good life, some have gotten rounder around their waist and lower chin too. As we seldom see each other on a daily basis, it is not appropriate for us to ask during the gathering on how such wealth is accumulated or how they become successful. This only leads to speculation behind their back. One prominent factor that often pops up is ‘they got lucky’. ‘He got lucky working for a nice boss.’ ‘He got lucky marrying a daughter of a wealthy shipping tycoon.’ ‘He got lucky that he bought that property during the economy downturn.’

It makes me wonder how big is a role luck plays in determining our success? If we did not put in efforts in upgrading our skills, increasing our market value or sharpening our sensitivity for economic cycles, could we still succeed when good luck fell upon us? If the reasons for success can be broken down in terms of percentage, how many percent should it be attributed to good luck?

A person who strikes lottery and wins a million dollars is often said to be lucky. But if this person did not put in effort in buying a lottery ticket, would he still succeed in winning the prize?

I believe 85% of our success comes from our efforts, 10% talent, something that comes with us when we are born, and only 5% luck.

Perhaps the next time I meet a successful person, I should get to know him/her better and emulate the efforts that have been put in in achieving success. This is much more empowering than just brushing off a person’s efforts and say that this person got lucky.

However, when we are asked how we got successful, we must always say that we got lucky. This is to show that we are humble, although huge chunk of our success is due to our own efforts. Just like when my sis-in-law said that we got lucky in being able to choose a capable domestic helper in taking care of our son, I could only agree with her, although my wife and I did put in some efforts in choosing which maid agency can best do its job and also in training the helper to help us in the way we want it to be.