Luck is an undeniable factor that affects people’s situations and activities. In some situations it plays a dominant role without needing special skill, such as a game of chance eg dice. In some others skill is necessary but success depends largely on luck, such as sports.
According to Aristotle, the well-known ancient philosopher who was perhaps the first to delve into the question of luck, it is not the factor of luck that is decisive, but the ability of some people to use and manipulate luck which seemingly operates arbitrarily. What does this mean. If we assume that a person is gifted with height, a natural trait that can come by chance as inborn, and become a great basketball player, some might think that he was lucky to be born tall or that he was more inclined to succeed because of that trait. But in reality it is his choices that led him to success, it is his will to play basketball, hard work, decisions he made and his ability to turn coincidence into success. A typical example is someone who won the joker and then lost it all back to scratch. But decision-making, logical thinking, the willingness to take a direction and work hard to see it through are all skills that can be worked on and can be perfected. Therefore it is the preparation that will lead to luck, that will lead to an outcome that would never happen without luck.
When Alexander the Great asked Aristotle if there was luck, he replied, “There is no luck, my boy. Luck is when extremely hard preparation meets opportunity.”