The pie chart of success in career

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Success in career is

1/3 competence
1/3 hard work
1/3 people skills

Thoughts?

By competence, I mean a skill and intelligence. But hard work is also necessary to develop skills, and there are talented people who don't apply those talents.

People skills is more important than I thought when I was younger. Maybe it doesn't affect how well you perform at the job as much, but it can be what gives you opportunities to get those jobs. For example, you meet a friend, and then that friend puts in a recommendation for you at a nice job.

It may not be exactly this ratio. 1 could be more important than others, and it depends purely on the industry. But overall.

1/3 skills (practice, repetition, training, ability)
1/3 determination (mind-state , self-control, efficacy)
1/3 networking (connections, charm, social intelligence)

I think a lot of it is luck as well so id say your pie chart is off to some degree.Like sometimes your success in a industry can hinge on factors you have no control over.

Yes, I agree luck is an important aspect.
Luck as in being in the right place at the right time, and having access to the right people and resources. Many people are born into such a situation. We shouldn't ignore starting privilege in a successful career.

Luck is definitely a factor.

And in conjunction with that, the 5th factor is "Showing Up".

Taking chances. Trying new things. Meeting people. Trying to apply to different jobs. Stepping out of your comfort zone. The luck and all the other factors don't come into play unless you show up.

Luck is meaningless.

If you do not qualify for whatever opportunities come along, than that is a choice, not luck.

People make their own 'luck'.

I would agree with the OP, in most cases.

well maybe it varies by field and career type because luck is the deciding factor in my profession of being a oil baron and the oil and gas industry in general even for the workers .There's no way I will be a big-time oil tycoon or even get a full-time entry level job making a living wage in any industry if I dont get really lucky.I cant make my own luck to be the next Harold Hamm.I will just have to get real lucky for that to happen.

Harold Hamm is the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers.  He picked cotton barefoot as a child and started working at a gas station at age 16 to support his family.  He eventually started his own trucking company hauling water to and from oilfields.  In 1967, he founded Shelly Dean Oil Company (which would later become Continental Resources), then in 1971 took out a loan to drill his first well.  Since then, he has worked to develop that company, taking on calculated risks and building on his successes.

What did you think; that his fortunes literally fell at his feet out of the clear blue sky?

Harold G. Hamm know the value of good, hard work.

Well the deciding factor is that he was lucky enough that enough of his profitable wells made up for his failed wildcatting and drilling.and the only reason why he got to be worth nearly 20 billion at one point was that he was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to be the largest exploration and production company in the Bakken.He also was lucky enough to have good geology and he did not have to overpay for drilling rights.He is the most successfull shale oil baron of the US and there's plenty of oil barons out there myself included that were a lot less lucky than he was.I live in a region filled with oil barons and if they are worth hundreds of millions or billions a lot of it comes down to lady luck.They dont call oil drillers like me the biggest gamblers of them all for no reason.A lot of times oil barons have to get their first big break to have a prayer of making it big and some have to wait 20 years for it and for the real unlucky it never comes.

Like I have had way more bad luck in the oilfield than i thought i would have and its why i am not worth 100 million or more For example I thought I was this close to getting my big break that would allow me to go big-time but it fell through.That was an example of being unlucky on my part.Harold Hamm was lucky enough to live in a oil producing area and he was lucky enough to develop an interest in being a oil tycoon.He is lucky oil prices got as high as it did at times.I drilled my first well before I was 20 and that was only possible because I was lucky enough to be born in the family i was born in.So a lot of people are so unlucky they cant even get started and try to be a oil baron.I just got lucky by drilling a lot of wells in such a prime area for a millennial oil driller.

Last edited by Texasmoneyman300 on 09 Nov 2021, 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

He was lucky that his first well was enough to pay off the bank and give him the capital to expand.Otherwise we would of never heard of him.I am not saying he wasnt a hard worker or anything like.But you have to have a lot of luck on your side to be a billionaire oil tycoon.Hard work alone isnt enough to make it big as a oilman.All oil drilling is high risk and a lot of things have to go just right for it to happen.I got unlucky one time when a landman made a simple mistake that made me lose drilling rights to prime acreage.Id say that was bad luck.

Last edited by Texasmoneyman300 on 09 Nov 2021, 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm in the camp of Luck is a factor. Not the only factor but a significant one.

Sometimes it might be good luck. Sometimes it might be bad luck.

Surprises, chance and medical disasters can waylay the best of them. Some folk succeeded through hard work, but others just as good may have had a different run of luck and things went differently. It's the lucky folk who are the ones we know about. Sometimes good luck can be mistaken for skill.

But a good rule to follow is: When Opportunity knocks, ANSWER THE DOOR!

Do you think he just shot a hole in the ground at some random location and up through the ground came some bubbling crude?  He did a geological survey, showed it to the bankers, borrowed their money, and located his first well where he knew oil would be.  The rest is history.

There is much more to success than waiting for it to happen; there is such a thing as working for that success.

An even better rule: When Opportunity knocks, answer the door dressed for work and with your tools in your hands.

But sometimes you can be unlucky enough in the oilfield drilling oil wells that even with a oil well that has the best geology any number of things could happen.Like you could have a bad drilling contractor that destroys the ability to make money from that well.you could have a fire or accident that hurts or kills roughnecks and you could get sued out to wazoo and lose everything thus ruining your chances of being the most successful oil baron when you are a old man.He had to get lucky to get clear title for those drilling rights because a lot of things can go wrong there that can mess up a whole operation.Some of those things have happened to me since I started drilling oil wells and I would have a lot more money if things went the other way.You have to get lucky to even make one million as a oilman much less over 10 billion.He was also lucky that the bankers were willing to lend him money.Some people aint even lucky enough to borrow money from a bank.He had to get lucky to find the land whenever so many other landmen were out for it too.he was lucky he found a good geologist.Any number of things could of gone wrong.He was lucky there wasnt a oil bust right as he was drilling which i think has happened to me too.So he got lucky.He was lucky that those Oklahoma oil barons were willing to show him the ropes to make it happen.