Our existence on this planet Earth is influenced by a lot of forces that control how things turn out. Sometimes, these forces work in ways that are unpredictable to man, hence I always say, "Life has no manual."
Sometimes, people say that hard work is what brings success, which, to a large extent, is true depending on the targeted success and the influence of other forces. Some say that what brings success is being lucky, which, to a large extent, we have also seen play out, and we can say that it is true. However, it also depends on the targeted success and the addition or influence of other forces.
For example, a student who wants to excel academically. Such a student must put in good hard work into their studies and also hope that things don't go sour along the way, such as falling into situations that could jeopardise all the hard work. A typical example of this is when a student who is working hard to hit their target gets their exam booklet marked by an angry lecturer who decides to cut down the marks, or when the lecturer gives out the booklets to another person to mark and the booklet gets misplaced. In the school I passed through, it was rare for a student to win a lecturer in court over such a matter.
Also, a student who didn't do well in their exams could get favoured.
I experienced this when I was in 100 level in school. We did a test in one of the major engineering courses, and I didn't do well at all, which I already knew while I was writing it. But when the scripts were returned to us, I got 10/10.
How did that happen?
When I saw the script, it wasn't my handwriting, and it wasn't what I had submitted. A friend of mine who was in his final year was the one who marked the papers(He was one of the lecturer's favourite students). When he saw that I didn't get enough marks, he wrote a fresh script for me and marked it 10/10.
Funny enough, the guy is now a well-respected pastor, and I doubt he would remember this event if I brought this up to him. I might make a WhatsApp post about this as a throwback and see the reactions.
So, I'm of the opinion that both hard work and luck can bring success, but it depends on the other forces at work in a person's life.
Just like I highlighted in my experience, one can have the force of connection, I mean, being known and connected with people, and this can swallow up both the forces of hard work and luck.
Also, just like the religious aspect says, if the grace of God is working in a man's life, everything works well with ease. This means one does not need to do much before success comes. It'll appear like being lucky; it will appear like one being connected with people that matter; it'll appear like one being very special among everyone.
Thanks for reading.
Photo: Own photo