Are Successful People Just Really Lucky?

Career coach and blogger Marty Nemko has been writing about career myths, such as "Do what you love," "Everyone should network," "Job seekers must sell themselves," "and "Getting a degree is usually worth the time and money." This final post in he series examines the idea that "you make your own luck."

The conventional wisdom is that working hard leads to "good luck," which leads to success. You've heard the exhortations:

"Luck comes to the well-prepared."

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."

Those are odes to working hard. Alas, I'm no longer so sure that hard work is as often the magic pill as those aphorisms imply.