The truth of the matter is that the majority of us that attend Berkeley have one prominent commonality despite everything else that makes each of us unique and diverse: our desire for success. There is definitely the recognition that success can be individually and carefully crafted to fit an individual’s own vision of the ideal life. Having clarified that success can be understood as a multitude of definitions, what really differentiates those that are “successful” and those that aren’t?
The first level to explore is the recent idea that luck plays a large and, often, unnoticed role in the realm of success. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a great source to read in exploring this topic. For example, the chance of becoming a CEO is tied to your name or month of birth. Having a middle initial displayed increases positive evaluations of people’s intellect and achievements. There are numerous examples within the book suggested and in research that illustrates the importance of luck within success.
However, in the past year, there was also a publication that by Pluchino, Raspisarada, and Alessio Biondo which attempted to determine how much of role luck plays in success. The simulation allowed hypothetical participants to start with different degrees of talent and each started with the same level of success. With the time frame of 6 months, the hypothetical individuals were randomly exposed to a specific number of lucky events and unlucky events which either improved their success by double or decreased their success by half.
The results aligned with the Pareto Principle, which is commonly known as the 80/20 rule in mathematical terms. To simply the results of the research, the outcomes showed that only a small number of the individuals ended up achieving the success of most of the population. Success was not at all normally distributed and the top 20 successful individuals in the simulation had just under 50% of the total successes. Talent was unfortunately not much of a determinator for success as the most talented individuals weren’t the most successful in the outcomes.The randomly distributed lucky and unlucky outcomes played more of a role in success than talent by far.
Next, the study proposed two environments: one with a highly rich and industrialized environment and another with a less wealthy and less stimulating opportunities. The individuals in the stimulating environment under the same randomized experiment resulted in a higher number of individuals that were able to increase their initial levels of success. For those in less stimulating environments, much fewer were able to increase their initial levels of success.
The researchers’ conclusion implicated that luck and opportunity both have a strong role in an individual’s success. Resources often fall in the lap of those that are already at a higher level of rewards in luck. Unfortunately, and fortunately for the select few, the world we live in isn’t a just place. This implies that for those of us that weren’t handed these factors of luck or weren’t blessed with the wealthiest and most stimulating environments at birth, we are here and we are committed to fighting against the odds. And for that, we stand proud.
As the year continues, remember this: luck may be against your side at times and there will be obstacles against the success you are striving for but, at the end of the day, persevere and continue to open the doors that no one thought you could.