Quotes & Sayings About Luck And Hard Work

It's a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time, that's what I think. Obviously you need to be noticed by people to be given the opportunities, and I think you do have to work hard. — Jill Douglas

I'm just living my life. I'm incredibly disciplined and I work incredibly hard. I show up for things on time, I do my homework, and I work my ass off. I've had a lot of luck, but I work really, really hard. — Anna Paquin

Hard work and talent are crucial to success, and intangible qualities like heart and clutch are generally real - but luck is just as important. Nobody gets to the top by accident, but nobody's on top without some pretty phenomenal accidents of fate. — Andrew Sharp

We have this myth that if you work hard, you can accomplish anything. It's not a very American thing to say, but I don't think that's true. It's true for a lot of people, but you need other things to succeed. You need luck, you need opportunity, and you need the life skills to recognize what an opportunity is. — David Lindsay-Abaire

Genetic randomness had already determined how much talent I'd been allotted, and destiny's randomness would account for my share of luck. The only piece I had any control over was my discipline. Recognizing that, it seemed like the best plan would be to work my ass off. That was the only card I had to play, so I played it hard. — Elizabeth Gilbert

No-one gets an iron-clad guarantee of success. Certainly, factors like opportunity, luck and timing are important. But the backbone of success is usually found in old-fashioned, basic concepts like hard work, determination, good planning and perseverance. — Mia Hamm

All the greatest blessings are a source of anxiety, and at no time should fortune be less trusted than when it is best; to maintain prosperity there is need of other prosperity, and in behalf of the prayers that have turned out well we must make still other prayers. For everything that comes to us from chance is unstable, and the higher it rises, the more liable it is to fall. Moreover, what is doomed to perish brings pleasure to no one; very wretched, therefore, and not merely short, must the life of those be who work hard to gain what they must work harder to keep. By great toil they attain what they wish, and with anxiety hold what they have attained; meanwhile they take no account of time that will never more return. — Seneca.

Scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and instruments, but in the ened your preparations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accrued to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work. — Michael Crichton

Any business owner or entrepreneur knows that there is no luck or good fortune about keeping a company up and running. It's nothing but hard work, consistency, determination, courage, staying focused, accepting failure, making changes, and simply keeping on with the grind. — Enaka Yembe

There is no such thing as overnight success or easy money. If you fail, do not be discouraged; try again. When you do well, do not change your ways. Success is not just good luck: it is a combination of hard work, good credit standing, opportunity, readiness and timing. Success will not last if you do not take care of it. — Henry Sy

Inspiration is one thing and you can't control it, but hard work is what keeps the ship moving. Good luck means, work hard. Keep up the good work. — Kevin Eubanks

I've met a few people in my time who were enthusiastic about hard work. And it was just my luck that all of them happened to be men I was working for at the time. — Bill Gold

This is the queasy shadowland, and they don't even work hard at that because they have never learned to work at anything. They turn sloppy, and when the youngness is gone, there isn't much left. Just the dead eyes and the small meaty skills and the feeling their luck went bad sometime, when they weren't watching. Fifteen to twenty-five is the span, and they age quickly and badly. These are the bunnies who never find a burrow. — John D. MacDonald

People "at the top" are eager to attribute their position to their own intellect, savvy, and hard work. The reality is much more complicated. Personal connections, family environment, and what appears to be plain luck determine how successful a person is. We are the product of three things- genetics, environment, and our personal choices- but two of these three factors we have no power over. We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think. — Timothy Keller

Bugs like these we've got here, you aren't going to find those unless you slow down and hunt really hard. Live nearby for a while and look. At which point it's too late, if you get a bad result. You're out of luck then." Long silence as he walked south along the beach. Then: "It's too bad. It really is a very pretty world." Later: "What's funny is anyone thinking it would work in the first place. I mean it's obvious any new place is going to be either alive or dead. If it's alive it's going to be poisonous, if it's dead you're going to have to work it up from scratch. I suppose that could work, but it might take about as long as it took Earth. Even if you've got the right bugs, even if you put machines to work, it would take thousands of years. So what's the point? Why do it at all? Why not be content with what you've got? Who were they, that they were so discontent? Who the fuck were they?" This sounded much like Devi, and Freya put her head — Kim Stanley Robinson

I know that my success comes from hard work, help from others, and being at the right place at the right time. I feel a deep and enduring sense of gratitude to those who have given me opportunities and support. I recognize the sheer luck of being born into my family in the United States rather than one of the many places in the world where women are denied basic rights. I believe that all of us - men and women alike - should acknowledge good fortune and thank the people who have helped us. No one accomplishes anything all alone.
But I also know that in order to continue to grow and challenge myself, I have to believe in my own abilities. I still face situations that I fear are beyond my capabilities. I still have days when I feel like a fraud. And I still sometimes find myself spoken over and discounted while men sitting next to me are not. But now I know how to take a deep breath and keep my hand up. I have learned to sit at the table. — Sheryl Sandberg

Of those who had been eyewitnesses at Kill Devil Hills the morning of the 17th, John T. Daniels was much the most effusive about what he had felt. "I like to think about it now," he would say in an interview years later. "I like to think about that first airplane the way it sailed off in the air . . . as pretty as any bird you ever laid your eyes on. I don't think I ever saw a prettier sight in my life." But it would never have happened, Daniels also stressed, had it not been for the two "workingest boys" he ever knew. It wasn't luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith. — David McCullough

This thing we call luck is merely professionalism and attention to detail, it's your awareness of everything that is going on around you, it's how well you know and understand your aircraft and your own limitations. Luck is the sum total of your of abilities as an aviator. If you think your luck is running low, you'd better get busy & make some more. Work harder, pay more attention. Do better preflights. — Stephen Coonts

Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Hard work, determination, and talent are key for any successful venture. But sometimes you need that fourth ingredient: dumb luck. Luck can never replace hard work and talent, but sometimes it can win out over both. — Abby Rosmarin

I believe in hard work and luck, and that the first often leads to the second — J.K. Rowling

His intelligence was just something he'd been born with. Luck of the draw, like being beautiful. It was a rationalization to say that he'd worked hard. It was like being given a fine knife and taking the trouble to polish and sharpen it: it's great that you make the effort, but someone had to give you the knife. — Adelle Waldman

Luck? Luck is hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't. — Lucille Ball

Pray for intestinal fortitude, work hard, and keep the faith. Oh, and pray for good luck, you're gonna need it. — Jerry Reed

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of hard luck. A good character, good habits and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all ill-luck that fools ever dreamed. — Joseph Addison

We all want to convince ourselves that it is about hard work and education and perseverance, but the truth is, life is much more about the fickle and the random. We don't want to admit it, but we are controlled by luck, by timing, by fate. — Harlan Coben

There is no luck, you work hard and study things intently. If you do that for long and hard enough you're successful. — Jason Calacanis

I am not smart, I pay attention.
I am not considerate, I listen.
I am not patient, I make time.
I'm not lucky, I work hard. — Mark W. Boyer

Everything that we enjoy is a result of someone's hard work. Some work is visible and other work goes unseen, but both are equally important. Some people stop working as soon as they find a job. Regardless of the unemployment statistics, it is hard to find good people to work. Many people don't understand the difference between idle time and leisure time. Idle time amounts to wasting or stealing time; leisure time is earned. Procrastinating amounts to not working.
Excellence is not luck; it is the result of a lot of hard work and practice. Hard work and practice make a person better at whatever he is doing. — Shiv Khera

Someone once told me: 'Luck is when opportunity meets preparation'. And that's what I really feel with my music. I've worked really, really hard on it. It was like, 'this is really what I want to do.. what do I have to do to make it work?' — Erica Packer

I've had enough success for two lifetimes, My success is talent put together with hard work and luck. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I'm not saying people shouldn't apply themselves and work hard. You do have to try to make your own luck. But I know people firsthand who worked incredibly hard, who were really smart, who never got into trouble, and still didn't get a break. — David Lindsay-Abaire

highly successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability, and opportunity. If we want to succeed, we need a combination of hard work, talent, and luck. — Adam M. Grant

A big part of winning is having lots of good luck. And I think a good competitor makes his own luck. That's why he is a winner. Luck to me is lots of determination lots of hard work, faith in myself, and in God. — Lane Frost

Patience, persistence and hard work lead to success and happiness. Or you can do whatever the hell you want and with a bit or a whole lot of luck you'll stumble onto success and happiness. — S.A. Tawks

We never went into a game that we did not feel sure of winning, and when we lost, we blamed it on hard luck or the umpires. We never gave any other team credit for being able to play ball, and the result was that we were hard to beat. If I could get my team to be confident, I think we would work our way to the front pretty quickly. — Joe Kelley

My skills are unique. Forged over a lifetime of dedication and hard work. It is not talent. It is not luck. It is nothing less than perseverance that makes me the best at what I do. For — A. Zavarelli

Luck is buying a lottery ticket along with your Yoo-hoo and striking it rich. Nothing about my life is lucky- it is all about hard work, it is all uphill struggle. — Emily Giffin

The foundation of your life is luck. Hard work and talent make up the difference. — Dennis Lehane

The main thing now was to find the steering wheel. At first, Billy windmilled his arms, hoping to find it by luck. When that didn't work, he became methodical, working in such a way that the wheel could not possibly escape him. He placed himself hard against the left-hand door, searched every square inch of the area before him. When he failed to find the wheel, he moved over six inches, and searched again. Amazingly, he was eventually hard against the right-hand door, without having found the wheel. He concluded that somebody had stolen it. This angered him as he passed out. He was in the back seat of his car, which was why he couldn't find the steering wheel. — Kurt Vonnegut

My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors. But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed. — Mark Warner

As an older and wiser man, I don't believe in luck. I believe in hard work and talent and determination. — Dexter Fletcher

As a former recipient of these services I can honestly say that the overwhelming majority of TANF recipients are hard-working Americans who are down on their luck, and just want an opportunity to better their lives and those of their family through work and access to education. — Gwen Moore

When I grew up, my father taught us the value of hard work. He wanted us to enjoy ourselves, but he also wanted to know what it took to be successful. He coached a lot of our sports teams growing up. We weren't very good, but we learned about hard work and enjoying life and your teammates. — Andrew Luck

Achievement? Depends on luck - to be born in the right place at the right time and be of the right color. To live long enough to be in the right place at the right time to make one's fortune. Yes, yes, hard work and talent make up the difference. They are crucial, and you know I'd never argue different. But the foundation of all lives is luck. Good or bad. Luck is life and life is luck. And it's leaking from the moment it lands in your hand. — Dennis Lehane

We all struggle in some way or another. So it's on us to work hard, and strive towards a better and healthy life. — Jonathan Anthony Burkett

I believe modeling is a combination of natural talent, the ability to adapt to different situations, hard work, and, most importantly, luck. — Anja Rubik

My parents didn't believe in luck. They believed in hard work and in preparing me to take advantage of opportunity. Like many parents, they taught me to be generous but never to depend on the generosity of others. — Naveen Jain

Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be - if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking - but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don't pass it up. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don't pass it up. Use it. Good luck to you. The Nation needs your gifts.
Lorraine Hansberry speech, "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black," given to Readers Digest/United Negro College Fund creative writing contest winners, NYC, May 1, 1964. — Lorraine Hansberry

When people say "Oh wow, you're so lucky" ... I always wonder how they define luck. I can assure you people don't achieve their dreams because their lucky; they work day and night, with little sleep, investing their own money and working extremely hard. You don't get lucky in this life, you work hard and show people that luck is something YOU create. So, if you want to chase your own passion start listening to your own little voice, but more than anything, don't wait on getting lucky or your dream will be as misguided as your definition of success! Anyone can change their life and anyone can achieve their dreams. So work hard, get inspired and go out there and do it! — Amanda Bernardo

With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, this writing thing may just pan out. — Rebel Miller

Talent and intelligence, not to mention tireless hard work, got lab scientists through the door, but - this was the dirty secret - you needed luck. — Allegra Goodman

I owe my sucess in one per cent to my talent, in ten per cent to luck, and in ninety per cent to hard word. Work, work, and more work is the secret to success. — Ignacy Jan Paderewski

Grownups have it in them to be creative, and sometimes, with the help of ambition, hard work, and a bit of luck they actually are, but being grownups, they have no sooner created some epoch-making invention than they become a slave to it. — Gunter Grass

Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck. Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have. — Ed Bradley

Great difficulties are felt at first and these cannot be overcome except by starting from experiments .. and then be conceiving certain hypotheses ... But even so, very much hard work remains to be done and one needs not only great perspicacity but often a degree of good fortune. — Christiaan Huygens

So when they win, it's their hard work
And when they lose, it's their bad luck — Sanhita Baruah

Success is very much the intersection of luck and hard work. — Dustin Moskovitz

I wouldn't worry about it too much, son. Certainly not about the peasants and the servants. They don't feel things as we do."
"They're human."
"Barely. They might as well be another species. What would happen without us to keep them in check? They wouldn't work the land. They would be at each other's throat if we weren't there to restrain them. Face it, they are driven by their instincts. Granted, that is a generalization, and there are some individuals who rise above that. Personally I think that is how the nobility originated. Even today, with the help of the Gods, hard work and some luck such a man can rise above his station. But as a group ... — Andrew Ashling

I extremely believe in luck, and I discovered more hard work, your luck as much — Thomas Jefferson

I don't rely on feng shui. I believe hard work brings us good luck and success. — John Gokongwei

I believe that we all have a responsibility to give back. No one becomes successful without lots of hard work, support from others, and a little luck. Giving back creates a virtuous cycle that makes everyone more successful. — Ron Conway

I don't know the definition of a star; I am just an actor. I prefer doing hard work, as I feel luck can't do much in absence of hard work. I am a lazy person - when I entered into this industry, I thought it was a cakewalk, but I have realised it needs a lot of patience and hard work. — Emraan Hashmi

People tend to believe that good fortune consists of equal parts talent, hard work, and sheer luck. It's hard to deny the roles of the latter two. As to talent, I would only say it consists primarily in finding the right moment to step in. — Jack McDevitt

Life, he suspected, hinges too often on chance. We all want to convince ourselves that it is about hard work and education and perseverance, but the truth is, life is much more about the fickle and the random. We don't want to admit it, but we are controlled by luck, by timing, by fate. In her case, the luck, the — Harlan Coben

Persevering is not often simply a matter of working hard and refusing to quit; often, by trying again, failing again, and failing better, we inadvertently place ourselves in the way of luck. — Karen Karbo

I probably get a deeper satisfaction of having taken a very good photograph than of having written something very good, a very good story. Maybe it's because the element of magic is so present in a good photograph - luck and magic, but also hard work and being ready and all that. — Teju Cole

the best of luck in improving their English writing skills. However, in saying that, it's not up to luck so much as dedication, hard work, and a personal interest in improving your English academic writing skills. APPLY your newly learned knowledge with practical essay writing skills, and you can write you way to a BA. — Stephen E. Dew

If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty, alone, will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true! Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of hard work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck. — Napoleon Hill

Without a doubt, because now in the music business talent and hard work isn't enough. There is just a lot of luck and marketing money involved in making any artist break. "Fall Down" is about a relationship, but you could certainly apply it to the relationship we've had with each other and throughout our career. — Jason C. Miller

We hold ourselves back not just out of fear of seeming too aggressive but also by underestimating our abilities. Ask a woman to explain why she's successful and she'll credit luck, hard work, and help from others. Ask a man the same question and he's likely to explain, or at least think, "C'mon, I'm awesome!"4 — Sheryl Sandberg

I use three main tools in writing: instinct, hard work and dumb luck. Dumb luck is missing a train and, while you wait for the next one, writing a key word, line or verse. When this happens often enough you begin to believe in Fate. — David Massengill

Good luck happens to people who work hard for it. Sometimes people just fall into the honey pot, but I've consistently strived to create whatever good fortune I can get in my life - and consistently strive just as hard not to screw it up once I have it! — Patrick Duffy

Success comes to you with luck and a lot of hard work, but it doesn't give you the right to be any better than anybody else. — Nick Nolte

If you are lucky and work very hard, you may someday get to experience freedom from the known. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

We get success by hard work and failure by hard luck — Ravi Ranjan Goswami

A lot of people think that success is luck and being in the right place at the right time. But I think if you're willing to work harder than anybody else, you can create an awful lot of your own luck. — Nolan Bushnell

Knighterrantry is a most chuckleheaded trade, and it is tedious hard work, too, but I begin to see that there is money in it, after all, if you have luck. Not that I would ever engage in it, as a business, for I wouldn't. No sound and legitimate business can be established on a basis of speculation. A successful whirl in the knighterrantry line
now what is it when you blow away the nonsense and come down to the cold facts? It's just a corner in pork, that's all. — Mark Twain

Not everyone who works hard makes their dream come true. You need luck and hard work and being in the right place at the right time but I still very much believe it's possible. — James Frey

In life, ninety-nine per cent is about good luck! Just remember that, son.' In a slightly argumentative tone I asked, 'But uncle, what about the balance one per cent? Surely that must be hard work or talent?' Laughing loudly, he declared triumphantly, 'The final one per cent? That's called bloody good luck, my boy! Simply keep at it and wait for your bloody good luck to kick in! — Ashwin Sanghi

I'm not a believer of luck. I think opportunity and hard work becomes luck. — Prabal Gurung

I did not care if Ella went to Princeton, if she was exceptionally pretty, if she grew up to marry a rich man, or really if she married at all - there were many incarnations of her I felt confident I could embrace, a hippie or a housewife or a career woman. But what I did care about, what I wanted most fervently, was for her to understand that hard work paid off, that decency begat decency, that humility was not a raincoat you occasionally pulled on when you thought conditions called for it, but rather a constant way of existing in the world, knowing that good luck and bad luck touched everyone and none of us was fully responsible for our fortunes or tragedies. Above all, I wanted my daughter to understand that many people were guided by bitterness and that it was best to avoid these individuals - their moods and behavior were a hornet's nest you had no possible reason to do anything other than bypass and ignore. — Curtis Sittenfeld

I went back to Jamaica after living in New York and started to work on experimental stuff and basically I grew as a filmmaker. I went to film school; I was a PA on a lot of projects and I worked so hard, you know, you're young and I learned from different mentors. And luck put me in the position to work with amazing people. One of my mentors by the name of Little X, who took me under his wing after I came out of film school and moved to New York. I worked in videos for Jay-Z, Pharrell to Busta Rhymes and Wyclef. I quickly realized how much I wanted to make films instead of music videos. — Storm Saulter

I don't believe in luck ... It's persistence, hard work, and not forgetting your dream. — Janet Jackson

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work - and realizing what opportunity is and what isn't. — Lucille Ball

The grass is never greener on the other side. You can only hope that with enough hard work, time, and luck that yours will become whatever shade the spray paint bottle said it would. — Lauren Burd

I don't want to wake up dead tommorrow and realize I didn't even try.

Luck my ass! Luck is just another word for hard work and an open mind. — Ryan E. Day

I was 16 when I quit gymnastics and decided to start acting. I started booking immediately after. I was very lucky and fortunate, but I also did the hard work. Half of it's hard work and half of it's luck. It's been working out so far. Fingers crossed for the future. — Nina Dobrev

A good idea is about ten percent and implementation and hard work, and luck is 90 percent. — Guy Kawasaki

Hard work and a proper frame of mind prepare you for the lucky breaks that come along
or don't. — Harrison Ford