From
the BBC
The
Dirty Secret of Success
We’re
often reluctant to credit our good fortune purely to luck. We’d much rather put
a material gain or positive outcome down to our brilliant intelligence, smarts,
skills or hard work.
But
if success is directly correlated to our ability, why do there seem to be so
many rich people with mediocre talent? And why aren’t the smartest people in
the world also the wealthiest?
A
new paper authored
by a team of Italian researchers, physicists Alessandro Pluchino and Andrea
Raspisarda and economist Alessio Biondo, used a computer simulation of success
defined by financial wealth to show that the most successful people in the
world aren’t necessarily the most talented. They are the luckiest.
From
Alessandro Puchino, one of the authors of the paper
“Were the most successful people also the most talented ones? That’s
what we would expect… if we assume that we reward the most successful people
because they are more talented or intelligent than other people, says physicist
Pluchino.
“But we discovered that this is not the case. Instead, very often, the
most successful people are moderately talented but very lucky.
“We discovered a strict correlation between luck and success. Encountering
a series of lucky events was responsible for incredible success even if their
individual talent was lower than super talented people.
“This is what we usually see around us in the real world. There are
plenty of instances of people who we don’t consider particularly smart but in
some way they reach a high level of wealth and success.”
Look
at the people who have become Presidents or CEOs or started incredibly
innovative companies (Facebook Google Amazon etc.), they are talented but there
are hundreds of others equally talented in this world.
The
incredible success story of the UBER ride share goes back to a rude Taxi driver
in Paris who did not like the three Americans having fun and laughing after a
night of partying in his taxi. The three Americans from SFO were friends were
on the brink of launching something else but the rude Taxi driver of Paris
reminded them that they needed polite drive share method and with Israeli
technology (which is behind Google mapping as well) Uber was born.
Who
has not heard of Sir Alexander Fleming and the discovery of Penicillin?
Israel
is called the Start Up nation, with largest number of innovations coming out of
a country so small in size and number and with incredibly limited finance and
economical strain due to task of protecting its citizens from terrorists.
Why
have not the Arab countries rich or poor, Libya or Egypt or Jordan or Saudi Arabia,
Qatar or UAE come up with innovation, a fraction of what Israel has produced?
You
cannot blame the Egyptians, whom I am sure are as talented as the Israelis or
the Palestinians or Qataris for their lack of innovation.
There
has to be something else?
I
thought about this recently as I was being taken around a Start Up nurturing
place in Haifa.
(IBM Haifa)
By exposing people to more fortunate
events, you provide more opportunities for hidden talent to emerge in society -
Andrea Raspisarda one of the authors of the paper
(Talent vs. Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure
At this particular institution that I visited in
the city of Haifa, young innovators were given the ecology (ambience, technical
help, expert counseling and networking) for trying out their ideas.
“Expose
yourself to as many casual interactions and opportunities as possible,” says
Pluchino. “It’s also true that if you will still need luck.
“But
you probably won’t find lucky opportunities if you stay locked in your room.”
Social
geography of your birth, talent, exposure and luck (this in a large dollop).
Good
Luck to Israel.
I missed my Iranian friends so much, the country I would like Israel to make connections with (in the region) is IRAN and perhaps with broad minded leaders (or becoming) like Prince Mohammed Bin Sultan of Saudi or Emir Tamim of Qatar.
ISRAEL IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE NOT ONLY FOR HE MIDDLE EAST BUT THE ENTIRE WORLD
Pioneering British chemist Sir William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), the man who discovered the first artificial clothing dye entirely by accident, was born 180 years ago today.
The anniversary of this eminent Victorian and scion of the Industrial Revolution is commemorated in today's Google Doodle. 12 March 2018
