I hear people talk about luck a lot. Straightup - luck doesn't exist.
If you believe in luck, then you believe either:
(1) some people consistently defy probability, or,
(2) some things aren't a result of cause and effect.
Life is a series of probability. Every day, there's a chance that a given set of things will happen. If you want to have a successful life, expose yourself to as much high-upside low-downside probability as you can. Any given thing you do might not work out, but if you expose yourself to high-upside low-downside, good things will happen. Read books, reach out to people, try to get projects working, keep trying to write and build things, keep learning new skills, keep treating people well.
If you want to fail at life, expose yourself to high-downside no-upside probability. This is short term gain at long term expense type stuff. Cigarettes. Unsecured debt for consumption. Most TV.
You'll keep getting "lucky" if you keep exposing yourself to things with upside and limited downside. If you get an amazing job or contract that you had a 1 in 1,000 chance of getting, were you lucky? No, especially not if you applied and pitched 1,000 other places. If you say, "Ok, I'm going to keep trying to get what I want until I do" you'll get it, as long as it's a positive sum game you're playing.
How about people that are born into good situation vs. bad? Were they "lucky"? No, of course not - they've got their background, training, country they live in, city they live in, whatever - as a result of the conscious decisions of the people that came before them. Luck has nothing to do with that.
My great-grandparents were dirt poor. Like, dirt poor. My grandparents were quite poor - after my grandfather got back from serving in the Pacific in WWII, he married my grandmother, and they had 9 kids. They never had any money. My Mom was #8, she (and I) only exist because they kept having kids because they thought it was important. My Mom worked really hard to dig out of being poor, and I was born with a little more opportunity than the generation before. I also owe a debt of gratitude to all the inventors and scientists and engineers and businesspeople who invented and built and improved the world before I was born.
But is that luck? No, it was conscious, deliberate actions by humans to build the world. Were Mayer Rothschild's sons lucky? No, they were successful because their Dad decided he wanted to work really hard, save his money, raise his kids well, and build the next generation instead of just consuming for himself and having "a nice life" like most people do.
There wasn't too much luck involved in the building of House Rothschild. Hustle, yes. Hard work, yes. Discipline, yes. Strong family ties, yes. Luck? No. It was all cause and effect, with some probability mixed in.
What about people who get killed in an earthquake? Bad luck? Or is it that there weren't enough safeguards and well-built emergency-proofings in the buildings they were in? Now, just because I say "Luck doesn't exist" doesn't mean "Everything is under your control" - but really, did you build two years of savings and diversify? If not, then when disaster inevitably strikes, you're more high and dry and in worse shape. Is that bad luck? Could you have sacrificed earlier in life and thus been prepared for [layoffs/disaster/changing political situation/whatever]? Some people are in trouble when crisis strikes, some people are ready. Is that luck? No. Luck doesn't exist.
Well, how about when someone dies senselessly, in a car crash or some such? Well, that's the closest you can get to something that's "bad luck", but even then - were you as careful about safety as you could be? I was in Cambodia and got hit by a motorcycle whose driver was a teenager driving fast on the wrong side of the road... and I was walking in a crosswalk at the time. Bad luck? No, probability. You go to a Third World country, your chance of dying this year goes up quite a lot. I got hit by a motorcycle, went to the clinic, got patched up, survived. Life goes on.
But what if the bell does ring for you early? Well, after you've done all you can do, you really can't control that. But again, I'm saying - no luck there. And also, no tragedy. Your time will come. I try to think about this every day - we don't have too much time on Earth. Whether it's one month, 8 years, 50 years, 70 years, or 100 years - this isn't too much time, it's not enough time to do all the good things that are capable of being done. The question is, were you spending your life right, doing all the best things you can, searching out the most meaningful things, taking the best courses of action, training yourself, building your talent, spending your time well, serving people, appreciating life? If you were, it's no shame to go when you go. The bell rings for all of us at some time. No luck there either - it's all cause and effect, and probability. There's a chance you're not breathing tomorrow and today's your last day. I meditate on that daily - when the bell rings for me, it's not bad luck or good luck, it's cause and effect and probability. If I've spent my time well, there's no bad luck when the bell rings. It'll happen. It'll be too soon, no matter when it happens. But luck will have nothing to do with it. Luck doesn't exist.