TL;DR — I absolutely agree that you need raw abilities along with the fortitude to stick with it, but I firmly believe that the 3rd leg on the “stool of success” is being fortunate enough to have luck on your side.
The ingredients of success
The parts you can control
I doubt many will disagree with my first two call-outs for what makes someone successful; ability & fortitude.
Sure, we are born with inherent abilities (and intelligence), but we can gain new abilities through effort. Unless you are an old dog, you can be taught new tricks.
I thought long & hard about what word was best suited for this next characteristic. I went with fortitude because strength itself is not enough. We have to be able to dig deep when we need it the most – even when the outcome looks grim.
Lest not forget the power of luck
Call it luck, fate, fortune, blessings, destiny, karma, or even happenstance, luck is a powerful thing.
We all know incredibly talented people with unstoppable motivation & drive who were thrown a twist in life (positive or negative) that catapulted them to a meteoric rise, or a devastating fall.
Is everyone else wrong?
Some quick googling for the ingredients of success lets up know there are many, many, many thoughts on this topic. Many of them adamantly profess that luck has absolutely nothing to do with it. My $0.02’s says they actually haven’t done enough self-reflection to see (and accept) that they had dose of good luck.
So do I know it all? Of course not, but I’m also not foolish enough to believe that my own trivial successes in life weren’t benefited by a sprinkling of good luck, too.
We could all benefit from a bit more self-reflection and absolutely could be just a bit more understanding for those with a shed-full of bad luck. Y’all be kind out there…