Saturday, August 18, 2007

"Chance favors the Prepared Mind" Pasteur

Marc Andreesen wrote a wonderful piece on the four faces of luck in his blog.

“Luck is something that every successful entrepreneur will tell you plays a huge role in the difference between success and failure. Many of those successful entrepreneurs will only admit this under duress, though, because if luck does indeed play such a huge role, then that seriously dents the image of the successful entrepreneur as an omniscient business genius.”

Chance I is completely impersonal; you can't influence it.

Chance II favors those who have a persistent curiosity about many things coupled with an energetic willingness to experiment and explore.

Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.

Chance IV favors those with distinctive, if not eccentric hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors.

Entrepreneurs understand this instinctively, however their mindset does not allow for the possibility that their future can be determined by anything other than their efforts.