>>>This article makes a point I've made here more than once and it has evidence to back it up:
>>>
>>>http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/why-luck-matters-more-than-you-might-think/476394/
>>>
>>>
>>>Tamar
>>
>>It's definitely on the money.
>>
>>I've seen many people fired from jobs, only to land in other jobs that allowed them to flourish.
>>
>>Perhaps the most extreme example is Michael Bloomberg, who was fired from Salomon Brothers for rattling the wrong political cages.
>>
>>It devastated him at first but the rest is history, isn't it?
>>
>>There's another element at work here, though.
>>We're definitely lucky when a door suddenly opens for us with no prior activity on our part.
>>However- not everyone chooses to walk through that door and that makes all the difference, doesn't it?
>
>Why does one walk through and another not?

Good question.

In my lifetime, I saw it play out with the GI Bill. Some, like me, took advantage of it while most did not.
For me that was caused by a lucky break. I happened to run into someone at the VA who told me the details- before that it was a mystery- and when I heard them, I made the decision on the spot to take advantage of it.

Still, even then.. I might not have done anything about it.

So what prompted me to do it?

I personally think that luck plays a part there as well.
It might be genetic luck- you're just built that way- or it might be something as simple as one person having a headache that day and another not having one.

Warren Buffet, the most astute businessman of my lifetime, calls himself "an ovarian accident."
That's probably as good an analysis as any.