You create your own luck. There's a difference between fatalism and pessimism. A pessimist might still choose to act despite expecting failure. A fatalist just gives up.

You create options for success through hard work. You need luck and inspiration to stumble upon the right options, and you need experience and wisdom to recognize it when you do. And you can do everything right and never get there. But without putting in the hours you likely don't create the options nor gain the wisdom to judge them correctly when you do. Don Reinertsen coined a notion of option value in his books and presentations on Lean 2.0. It's something that resonates with me. Lots of startups practice Lean 1.0 which is more like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

> And not to piss in your cereal but having leads for $bigcorp means nothing until a deal is inked.

Very aware of that, obviously.