Kuljoe: I wuld say luck is 99% hardwork wit God's intervention.

Gbam Over and Out of here...

Cultured: Well , I would rather go with the postulation that " when preparation meet with opportunity success occur " , so I don't believe in luck rather I believe in " INNOVATION " . Innovation is that secret non pronounced word you see around every success , in the layman's world it is termed smartness- This justify the postulation " hard work is good but it's smart work that pays well " . My advice to the religious fanatics , it is about time to stop waiting for miracle that will never come ; embrace innovation and I bet you , the sky will become your stepping stone for success. If you can not innovate; imitate .

Anoda GBAM! b4 I waka....

This is a very interesting topic Jarus, I am a perfect example of what you described, I am christian so i will call it favour but we are on the same page.

I left my banking job in nigeria to go for subsea engineering after studying Electronic Engineering and many people told me it would be the biggest mistake of my life but i carried on.

I entered the subsea class and found out i was probably the one with one of the lowest CPGAs in the class but i worked hard so nobody noticed i was a weak link. I was LUCKY to be one of the few that got internships, an oil company into electronic engineering told the school they needed an electronic subsea guy and they sent me for internship there! MIRACLE!!!

I did that for a few months and the manager called me for interview and during the interview i told them i loved subsea construction and installation.... They don't offer that service so I FAILED!!!

I didn't do my research well because i would have found out it was not part of their work. The manager told me that employing me would not be good as he would spend almost a £100k in training over 3yrs when i am not really interested. I begged him but "no show".

One day he told me that he ran into his old friend that was working in a subsea construction company as a manager and told him about me. He said i should contact the guy. I contacted him and was given a job in subsea installation and construction without technical interview.

Example 2
Two years later i went for a conference and ran into a Subsea Manager in one of the biggest O & G operators in the world (i could have ignored him but didn't), we had a chat about africa and a few things and he asked me if i wanted to work for them and i was like yes!!!
Had two interviews with them (he had already made up his mind before i came).
That's how i became installation engineer with them.

It is not by smartness or hustle alone, "time & chance" make everything easy!

^^
It might seem like you were lucky, but you did prepare and make sacrifices (like leaving your banking job), and eventually got your reward.

Also, if you didn't got to the first interview, and you didn't continue to reach out to the hiring manager (even though he already turned you down), you would not have eventually gotten a job. And if you didn't attend the conference, you wouldn't have met someone who offered you a job. Simples.

I would prefer to look at life as a continuous cycle of sowing and reaping. Sow something, you reap something. Sow time, effort, hard work, maybe even prayers, into any endeavour, and you reap a reward. Usually when you think you just got a lucky break, you are merely getting a reward for something you sowed.

@OP

I have never really felt lucky
Everything I have had, I have always felt I deserved and much more

If I own Glo, or even become Nigerian president, I'd feel I deserve it and even feel short-changed

I like this thread..As for me,I believe luck exists..But I'll rather be hardworking and prentend as if there is no luck..If the luck then comes,good..That idea of waiting for luck can attimes make you not to prepare and be hardworking..Because while waiting for that luck unpreparedly,and it decides not to show face..Na serious failure be that O..

plainmirror: ℓ reminisce one of nice's song lyrics
'Am not lucky...'
'Am blessed'.

Brymo, not 9ice.

As much as i would have love to say i've never been really lucky in anything before... trawling through memory, specifically about two months ago i remember my life taking a sensational twist from an obscure position which i hitherto thought i was going to remain for a longer period to come. The result which i'll say can never be attributed to my assiduousness, nor will i say it was as a result of my zest to move of out of the status quo but pure luck.

awesome_t: PhD well earned

And u had to quote the entire article for a three word sentence? Educated illiterate!