Luck!

Risk taking-Why do we do it?
We are blinded by the possible outcomes-Riches, power, love, notoriety,etc. What are the real odds of winning (getting rich)? Very, very high. The cemetery of failed enterprises is very silent. We hear about the grand successes, we don't hear much about the failures, grand or otherwise, even though they out number successes by a wide margin.
So, can success be ascribed to the casual relationship between specific traits and subsequent events? Trump is shrewd, tall, hardworking and cynical. Is that why he's rich?
Can failure be ascribed to the casual relationship between specific traits and subsequent events? Bob the Bear is shrewd, tall, hardworking, and cynical. Is that why he's poor? What truly separates Trump from Bob the Bear is a single factor-Luck. Plain luck. that's why you often see rich men and women become poor, they ran out of luck. Madoff investors, 401k owners at Enron, Lucent, World Communications, the list goes on and on.
Nobody deserves to be a millionaire and conversely, nobody deserves not to be a millionaire. So if you can deserve either rich or not rich, what is the difference? Again, Luck
Now it gets a bit scary as we go further along this road of fortune, good or bad. The bigger question becomes; how much do we have to do with our success or failure; wealth or poverty?
Think about it. Not very comforting to realize that luck is the difference!
The basic ideas for this blog come from "The Black Swan" by N.N.Taleb.