Thanks for your comment, Melinda. I’m pretty split on the matter.
I do know from psychological studies that it’s important for people to have an internal locus of control — that is, to believe that we have control over our own destiny. Without it, it’s hard to persist and not give up. So, in that sense, it’s good that you don’t believe in luck.
But on the other hand, believing that we are in control of our destiny has a dangerous flipside. It can lead to something quite akin to victim blaming: Oh, you’re not succeeding? Well, since luck doesn’t exist, it must be your fault!
And that not only seems harsh to me, it also seems wrong.
In the most extreme example, it can be like an American billionaire telling a starving child in a war-torn country that it’s their fault that they don’t have anything to eat:
Hey, kiddo! Oh, you’re hungry? Well, maybe you should have worked a little harder you lazy bum!
The simple fact that you have the time, health, and mental capabilities to even try making it as a writer, necessarily means that you have already been lucky. For instance, you’ve won the lottery of birth by not being born in abject poverty or with severe mental disabilities.
I’m using extreme examples to make the point, but the same reasoning applies all over. Both you and I are lucky that we’ve been given access to a decent enough education, that we grew up in an environment that fostered us in the right way, that we have genes that make us somewhat ambitious and persistent, that certain people have supported us on our writing journey (whether that’s editors, family, or friends), that the almighty Medium algorithm has pushed some of our articles in front of a decent number of readers, etc.
If parallel universes exist, there is one in which you and I have utterly failed as writers and another in which you and I are some of the big shots. So why aren’t we big shots in this universe? Maybe it’s because we’re not working hard enough. But more likely it’s simply because of circumstances that are beyond our control — a.k.a. luck.
