Success - Luck or Skill?

Here's tonight's business question for you to mull over. Is business success a matter of luck or skill? If your answer is both then how much of one and how much of the other?

The reason I ask is that all of the sudden we're having some pretty serious interest from some pretty serious industry contenders. While on the one hand I'd argue that it was skill there's also a pretty strong arguement for a heck of a lot of luck involved too. The skill, I believe, comes into play due to the fact that my better half and I spend a lot of time watching trends, trying to forecast where the industry is headed, and then trying to make sure that our brand and product line evolves ahead of the curve. Our plan the entire time has been to create products that are one step ahead of not only the competition but also the industry (within my niche) so that by the time the industry caught up we were seen as experts in that arena. I can't say it's worked in entirety yet, and we've made a bunch of mistakes a long the way, but it does seem like we're catching people's attention.

On the other hand, there's a fair amount of luck involved too. Luck in that the trends we forecast have actually occured despite a massive economic constriction. Luck in that we weren't necessarily expecting the BIG BIG BIG folks to head in the direction we forecast - we figured it would be the small BIG and maybe, just maybe, the medium BIG - but not the BIG BIG BIG! Luck in that the small BIG, the medium BIG, and the BIG BIG BIG guys actually noticed us in the first place and then picked up the phone and called.

So how much is luck and how much is skill?

A funny story for you - or atleast it was for me. The call I got from BIG BIG BIG company came last Monday at 4:45pm when I was working from home...aka, sitting at my computer at the dining room table. I had realized about half an hour earlier that my primary ballot was due the next day and b/c I do truly appreciate the work our solidars have done to maintain our democracy, I felt the least I could do was put some research into deciding who to vote for and make sure I got the ballot in on time. So there I was scanning the internet for information on the candidates when the call came. I was so thrown off balance by the call that I think I actually came off sounding far calmer and cooler then I really was. Not unlike talking to a shock victim. I just never expected to receive a call from them - let along while comparing the platforms of various candidates.

Hmm, I think it was probably funnier if you were there. But you get the gist...