We have been told several times, that if you are running after something, all you need is just work for it. Wake up before the sun rises and work harder than everyone else, and someday, just maybe, you will make it.
That is what motivational speakers tell us. It is the gospel preached in every graduation speech and in most churches, by the men of God. But behind those messages, there is a truth we rarely say out loud, not everyone gets a fair shot in life and it is a sad reality.
Not everyone begins the race from the same starting line. And sometimes, no matter how hard you work, the door never opens. You can knock multiple times and it just never opens. And you don’t need to go to Stanford or Yale to know this. Things don’t just work out.
It is true that, hard work matters. And even in our communities, there are many examples, of men and women, who clawed their ways up there with nothing but a dream and hard work. But if we are being truly honest, if we are speaking from the heart, then we must admit, success is also about luck too.
Imagine a child born in Pibor Administrative Area in South Sudan. That child enters a world where opportunity is thin like smoke, where life itself is a struggle. Now imagine another child born in Burundi, which itself is one of the poorest countries on earth, with a GDP per capita of just $700. Even in Burundi, that child still has slightly more chance at a future, because in Pibor, the roads may not even exist. Schools might be nothing but a dream of many kids there. Doctors? Hospitals? Forget it. And even everywhere else, just forget.
Now compare those two children to someone born in Miami or Los Angeles, Paris or Tokyo. From day one, the American child has access to books, to safe drinking water, to teachers with degrees, better healthcare, name it. And when that child shows a talent, be it in sports, coding, music, or writing, the system is built to catch that talent, protect it, and nurture it.
That is luck in itself. Let is take LeBron James as an example. He is one the world’s most respected basketball players. Many say, he earned it. He trained. He worked harder than anyone else. And they are all right because he surely did. But we also have to look at what he was born into. LeBron was born in 1984, in the United States. That matters. Because if he had been born in 1880, it likely he would have been forgotten by history. If he had been born in a place like rural Somalia, or the Nuba Mountains, his story would be different and in fact, he was going to be a lost talent because a 30-year-old man who lives in an uncle in Sherikat and owns an iPhone 16 with zero income in 2025 is much richer than a man who owned a house in 1884, that is about 141 ago.
That is the part we often avoid, timing is pure luck. Location is luck. Recognition is luck. And to get all these things is another luck. It is like wining a genetic lottery from your beautiful mother.
Being born to a wealthy family is another luck. Being the son of a president, or the daughter of a CEO, opens doors that others don’t even know exist. When you mess up, there are nets to catch you. When you fall, there is money, there are second chances.
But if you are born to a family fighting to eat twice a day, there is no safety net. Every mistake is costly. Every delay is dangerous. It is not that you don’t want to succeed; it is just that the mountain is too steep, and your feet are bare. The road up there takes bravery and prayers.
So, when someone from privilege makes it and says, just work hard like I did, it can sound like a joke to those still stuck in survival mode. Everything is luck, even being healthy alone because if you are healthy enough to chase your dreams, you have already won lottery. There are people who want to succeed, who dream of becoming something but they are tied to hospital beds
So, if you can wake up, breathe freely, walk to school or work, focus on your goals, that is not just a blessing. That is luck.
You are lucky if rats don’t make love on you as you slept. You are lucky if you have something to eat and a family that loves you unconditionally. We don’t often count these things when we define success. But they matter. They shape the journey. And yes, hard work still matters.
You can’t sit and wait for luck to carry you to the top. That is not how life works. Even those with privilege must pull and push. Even the lucky must push hard. But we must stop pretending that success is only about efforts because life gets mad sometimes. Thanks for reading