Lucky You?

I often mention that luck plays an important role in the success or failure of new enterprises, and have previously pointed out that Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has acknowledged that luck was the most important factor in Google's early success. I recently read a quote attributed to Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM (BlackBerry) and heavily involved in its early success. A recent article in Business Week about the rise and fall of BlackBerry ascribes to Balsillie the following statement: "A lot of people who are involved in building a $60 billion company like to look back and attribute their success to smart moves along the way. What I'm going to tell you is a story about luck--and extraordinary luck at key moments along the way." My goal in emphasizing the critical importance of luck in your success is this: You will experience both good luck and bad luck along the way. If you let the bad luck put you under, you will not be there when the good luck would have later come along. This is a primary reason why persistence matters!