With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, we started thinking about luck and how it affects business.

We wondered: Is luck a real factor in success, or does it not have much of an impact?

Without a magical rainbow to provide a pot of golden answers, we turned to Twitter to ask real entrepreneurs what their thoughts are about luck in business. This started a lively conversation with opinions all over the spectrum—take a look at some of the responses below.

Luck in Business: Don’t Count On It

Several respondents on Twitter agreed that luck is secondary to hard work—and that you can’t count too much on leprechauns and lucky charms if you truly want to be successful.

Kurt Elster said, “I make my own luck.”

Brad Robinson said, “You can’t create luck, but you can create opportunity for it. Applies to both good and bad luck.”


Suzan Bond said, “Luck is in part a mindset and also highly related to openness and focus.”

Blair Wadman said, “You increase your luck surface area with hard work, expertise, putting yourself out there, etc.”

Sarah Greesonbach said, “Luck gets scared away easily by loud noises, debt, and negativity.”

Cait Flanders said, “You make your own luck by being open to new opportunities and doing hard work.”

Mojca Mars said, “Business isn’t luck-based. Hard work = being everywhere, all the time, trying hard. When that next opportunity is going to come around, you’ll be there already. Not because of luck, but because of hard work. Because you’ve been around for 90% of the time when nothing happened. Luck is therefore the consequence of hard work.”

Ryan Waggoner said, “Hard work is a multiplier on luck, but it is true that most of us started with a huge length to begin with (privilege.) Hard work is the width.”

Luck Matters in Business

However, a few entrepreneurs said that luck actually has a lot to do with business—and that being in the right place at the right time can have a major impact on success.

Glenn Stovall said, “Business is uncomfortably luck-based. I think people like to believe that success is a factor of hard work/skill (which does play a part), but luck is a high percentage.”

Ruben Gamez said, “Luck is often a factor and fortunately something we can influence & double down on. (If defined as things that unexpectedly happen.)”

The Verdict: It’s Up To You

It’s clear that the majority of people we spoke with thought that luck didn’t have much to do with success in business, but each person has a different perspective—and we respect that.

What do you think about luck and business?