People who call you "lucky" for being successful (not even just money related, anything in life) are simply too afraid of failure to even attempt to accomplish anything themselves.
Discussion
It means they will never be successful
Precisely.
Success comes from taking opportunities.
Yes some factors are often out of control so it's partially luck. But if you didn't take the opportunity to begin with your chances of success are literally zero.
Luck has more to do with success than successful people would like to admit.
We pretend it’s all skill, but your genetics, your upbringing, the people you’ve met, the opportunities presented, etc are all out of one’s control.
Success is a combination of good luck (opportunities) and skill (taking advantage of them). One without the other is useless.
As you said. Success is about taking opportunities. The luck comes after.
Most don't take opportunities, hence the scorn towards those who do.
I think what I’m saying is that luck presents you with opportunities but skill is what helps you see and capitalize on them, rather than the other way around.
Who doesn't have some type of skill?
I actually wrote out a long reply but remembered Nietzsche put it perfectly already:
“Everyone possesses inborn talent, but few possess the degree of inborn and acquired toughness, endurance and energy actually to become a talent, that is to say to become what he is: which means to discharge it in works and actions.”
We all have talents of some type. What's lacking usually is determination. And fear of failure scares many too.
I agree that fear of failure stops many and that we are all born with some sort of predisposition towards a skill, but it strikes me as a bit egotistical to ignore that someone/something outside of your control is what helped develop that.
At the very least, consider that you could have been a stain on a gym sock instead of a person. The fact that either of us are here is a magnificent stroke of luck!
Oh of course. You can't discount the role luck plays in success. Not every opportunity plays out and the reasons they don't are usually outside your control.
What I don't like however is the opposite attitude to the arrogance you described. In the same way it's unfair to discredit that luck plays some role, it's equally unfair to attribute success to only luck.
I don't think seeking out opportunities can be considered pure luck either.
There's an element of luck but they don't tend to just appear by magic.