Smart or Lucky: What's Better?

I would rather work hard and then be lucky.... this way u will have that 'rewarded', 'success' feeling that comes with it....

this is strictly my opinion but being lucky without preparation, u are more likely to take things for granted and waste all....

Luck is only for the wishful thinking, even if you are so lucky that striked $1M in a lottery or something, will you be able to sustain your new found wealth?

With smart and hardwork of course, with both feet firmly on the ground, you do not need to be lucky, your reward will eventually come and when it come others will view you as "lucky guy" or overnight success.

Many have heard Ray Kroc's (McDonalds) lucky overnight success! .... but in his own words; it was a long "overnight" 40 years in the making.

I think I'll stick with the "smarts" as having that quality will enable you to create your own "luck".

90% of what I do fails...

I'm smart enough to know when I'm lucky, and exploit it to the fullest.

- Reilly

It's a question of situation. We would like to lucky where our smartness may have loopholes

I think luck is only something we create, by taking action. From what I have seen so far in my life, you will rarely find much luck without much action taken.

In an ideal world, I'd like to have both smarts and luck. Luck generally comes about and creates those 'right place at the right time' moments, but funnily enough, all those that have ever been succussful, always seem to say they were at the 'right place at the right time' when actually - they always put themselves in that place by taking action and therefore created their own luck. Of course this is only my perception of it, but that is what I think anyway.

Why not both ;-)

Personally I think with IM if you are smart, then you make your own luck. Getting really lucky like winning the lottery is just pure chance, and doesn't generally apply to IM.

I would pick smart over lucky any day . Luck is like a bird that quickily flies away .Being smart has permanent usefulness

I would rather choose smart since it is reflection from your personality and making money from your own effort, lucky, sorry but i don't believe in luck.

Neither are really better. Being smart is only good if you are creative too. Being lucky is only good if you understand action.

If your smart (in a sense of wisdom or analyzing data) you simply have the ability to discern correct observations from incorrect observations. However, if you are not creative enough to benefit from your observations that is no better than reading a book and not understanding it.

If you are lucky and happen to be in the right places at the right times, that just means you are presented with opportunities, not that they will actually help you. You've got to understand what forces compel you to begin action in a sense that you plan to finish the action.

What's the true key to discerning between the two in a way that incorporates both for benefit towards personal development?

Your ability to respond to life. Reaction to the events you encounter will help you utilize your smarts and lucky breaks. If you purposefully choose your reactions correctly, then you will discern a subject well (gain wisdom), but will also understand that wisdom (the creativeness to use it).

If you purposefully choose your reactions correctly you can alter how you are perceived, the situations you will encounter, and will find more "lucky breaks" by simply being an attractive person for those breaks. When those breaks are encountered, if you purposefully control your reaction and decide to commit to the opportunity and TAKE ACTION you will find yourself making massive changes in your life.

Hope that helps!
Chris

Lucky is being in the right place at the right time.
Being smart is knowing how to take advantage of it.

Here's a classic formula:

Preparation + Opportunity = Success

I believe luck comes to those who are best prepared. You've probably heard stories of big-time lotto winners that squander their wealth and fall flat on their face, broke again after a short spell because they never learned how to harness and manage their newfound wealth.

I believe that all successful entrepreneurs have something in common... they're willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to achieve their dreams.

When they breakthrough, many people label it Good Luck.

The mountain of blood, sweat, and tears is obscured by success.

There's a saying, "The bitter the bitter, the sweeter the sweet."

In the majority of cases, people struggle before they succeed. And that can be a good thing; teaching one to value the riches they acquire.

varies from person to person. If you're smart you can earn by working and if you're lucky you can win by a ... "lucky".
My guess is that it must first be smarter to be lucky before. It is as question "Who was first? egg or chicken?. In addition if we think, if you're smart means you already had that lucky.

Without smarts, short term luck will not be converted to long term benefit.

Smart people create their own luck.

I'd rather be smart in the sense of being savvy with something - like knowing what it takes to be successful and just staying with doing that all the time until making the success happen.

“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” – Zig Zigler

Contact me if you are interested in a free ebook on business building.

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Debra Taylor (facebook name)

I don't believe in "being lucky". You get what you deserve. You should read "the power 2010" by Rhonda Byrne. Everyone deserves to be lucky as long as they 100 % believe they can get "lucky".

Everybody wise if it is used correctly, the luck will favor not accidentally come into our lives

Being lucky might be considered a certain sort of intelligence anyway. But if I had to choose the too I'll take smart.

I'd rather be smart, its much easier to manifest luck than it is to maniest 'smart' if you will. being lucky is a mindset that anyone can manifest, however being smart takes hard work, burrying your head in books and such.

In entrepreneurial endeavors, I believe as Kai wrote:

Preparation + Opportunity = Success

This way, I would rather work smart.... The breaks will come... In God's time... Not ours...

God Bless,

Rich

Smarts is better because its consistant and being consistant is huge in IM and business in general. I do believe in luck but lightning never strikes twice......

I will choose to be lucky, because I know I'm unlucky if I'm smart, and I won't succeed. But if I'm not smart but lucky, I will still be successful.

you are right HorseStall

I'd rather be smart, luck only comes rarely but being smart is infinite.

smart puts you in a better position to benefit from luck, you gotta be good to be lucky and lucky to be good!

I'd rather be smart.

I think that if you're smart you don't need luck.

If you're smart you know the right place and the right time already.

I think lucky is just part of being smart because lucky is just happening for a chance. With hardwork there is no other factor to make it work just take an action then hardwork will happen.

Elaborating.

I don't think it is about being smart OR being lucky. I think it's about making good decisions based on the good decisions others have made that lead to their success.

I also don't think luck has anything to do with anything, as the 'spirit' is the one who puts us in the 'right place at the right time.'

The only time someone has excessive bad 'luck' is when they are doing things that are either:
A. proven to fail
B. doing things over and over again that they shouldn't be doing

Being smart, for this same reason, also has nothing to do with it. Maybe I say this because I've been blessed with a brain, but that doesn't mean I don't make bad decisions. Being smart can only take somebody so far. Being lucky is the same concept.

What's the point of being smart if someone fails to make good decisions?
What's the point of being lucky if the person does not realize this is due to the good decisions they make?

I could say I'm lucky... I could say I'm smart... all in all, neither one matters as much as making the right decisions when they present themselves at the right time. Some may call me lucky because I get to work from home with my kid running around in the background. "Wow, she lucked up!"

No, fact of the matter is I work from home because I got kicked out of highschool @ 16. Most would say my road ended there. But then I made a good decision. And I got my GED. After my GED, I built my first blog.

A few years later I made another good decision. To go to school for printing and graphics. I wanted to be a newspaper publisher. But due to the cost and the 'decisions' i made, I ended up sitting at home for THREE YEARS, making less than 10 a month. Did i mention I was working nearly 8 hours a day? Wow, that sure seems unlucky, doesn't it?

But then, I made another decision. To learn OptimizePress. This changed my life around. I've now got more customers than I could ever dream of... all within a 6 month period.

Do you call this luck? I'm not very lucky.
Do you call this smart? It took me three years to get here... not too smart.
Do you call this good decision making over the course of 10 years?

yes.

so all in all, I think making good decisions that are based around the good decisions of successful people is better. :p

I'd rather be both by any stretch of the imagination.... but I have found that you can't get by on luck alone... not long term anyway.

However... smarts will get you pretty far. That said... if you have smarts without persistence, focus, and unstoppable determination... you will go nowhere.

It's the total package, and your belief in yourself even at the exclusion of other people that causes people to be successful. Also smarts doesn't = educated necessarily. Some of the smartest most successful people I know... have been high school drop outs, or people with less than a high school education who.... will say upfront that they don't understand XYZ.

BUT, they lived life, and learned... and when they needed to, they found people who DID understand it and continued on from there.

It would be good if you had both but life is never that free, but I perfer smarts because it is more consistant should follow a more linear progression of sucess, with luck, you might hit it big once but after you get "lucky", you might not be sucessful again.

The more knowledge I retain, the luckier I am... strange

Its hard to say because if your lucky are you so dumb you dont take advantage of your luck or do you? If your smart you can still be dumb; book smarts or street smarts, common sense goes a long way and thats its own form of smarts.

I guess I would rather be smart and make my own luck and pave my own way with determination and hard work.

I would prefer Smart, since Luck isn't always and i don't rely on luck so much.

I would rather work hard to be smart ; then be lucky....
Because i believe , not every time you will get your luck when needed ..

I have seen a good amount of people who are really lucky. But when I really look into their journey, most of them are not lucky all the time. They have gone through some road blocks also, and they got smarter. And the smarter they go, the better they are at finding lucks around.

So I am going for smart

well...
I will choose smart because it can create luck for a long term

Both are needed. Sometimes we are very smart and work very hard, but finally we don't get the result we want beause of no luck.

I would say smart people will get luck.

You need both to succeed, but knowledge is more important.

I'd rather go with smart. This quality also comes with hard work and it really feels great achieving success together with it.

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."- Seneca

On Smarts:
"if you've got an IQ of 160, give away 30 points to somebody else, because you don't need it" Warren Buffett

On Luck:
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

both of them , i need it

Definitely Smart works as you can always use your wits to improve your odds at being "Lucky"...

Smart,
Luck can save you or favor you for once, twice, thrice not more than that. But smartness is forever.