Ben Franklin has a great line on this topic - "Diligence is the mother of good luck."
The author illustrates this major point with an example of the "TOP" cellist in the world:
"One [cellist] earns eight or nine figures a year while the cellist who is almost as good is teaching music lessons to third graders in New Jersey somewhere. . . The person who is eventually successful got there by defeating thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of rivals in competitions that started at an early age. . . [but] the luckiest one . . [is] that person who is going to win the contest most of the time."
EG - you need to put in the hours of preparation & subject yourself to competition of the highest order to even have a chance at being the "luckiest" in your field.
This just pushes the question back one step. How many people have the opportunity to buy a cello at a young enough age to practice enough hours to become the best?
I'm not saying it always ends in luck, actually I just don't think this is the right line of reasoning. Frank's point is about the importance of luck in the real world, but also about taking the appropriate attitude towards it. As weird as it might sound, those two points aren't necessarily related.
The author illustrates this major point with an example of the "TOP" cellist in the world:
"One [cellist] earns eight or nine figures a year while the cellist who is almost as good is teaching music lessons to third graders in New Jersey somewhere. . . The person who is eventually successful got there by defeating thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of rivals in competitions that started at an early age. . . [but] the luckiest one . . [is] that person who is going to win the contest most of the time."
EG - you need to put in the hours of preparation & subject yourself to competition of the highest order to even have a chance at being the "luckiest" in your field.