Why Do Some People Succeed? (Part 1)

Why do some people achieve success while others, despite working tirelessly, remain unsatisfied with their results?

Imagine two people who decide to learn programming at around the same time. Both take courses, practice for countless hours, and build various projects.

A few years later, one of them has launched their own business and is earning an income from their skill, while the other still hasn’t reached their desired position.

There are those who achieve remarkable results through hard work, and those who make little progress despite spending a tremendous amount of time and energy.

If simply trying hard and repeating an activity were enough to achieve success, we would expect two people who invest the same amount of time and energy into a task to achieve the exact same results. But in reality, this doesn’t happen.

So, what is the difference?

One thing we are certain of is that simply working harder does not automatically make us more successful.

Does More Effort Always Yield Better Results?
Suppose two people decide to launch an online store. Both have roughly the same initial capital, sell similar products, and use social media to attract customers.

The first person spends hours every day creating content, increasing their product inventory, redesigning the website, and spending money on ads. Months pass, but their sales remain low. They tell themselves that they simply haven’t worked hard enough and need to push harder.

The second person also dedicates time to their business, but before increasing expenses, they try to understand why customers aren’t buying. They investigate: Are the prices appropriate? Do customers actually need these items? Is the checkout process too complicated, and are the ads reaching the right audience?

After a while, the second person realizes that a large portion of site visitors abandon their purchases due to high shipping costs. Instead of increasing their ad budget, they focus on fixing this issue.

Both individuals put in the effort, but the difference was that one focused purely on increasing their activity level, while the other tried to find the root cause of why they weren’t getting results.

Of course, this is just a hypothetical example, and in the real world, various factors determine the success or failure of a business. However, this example highlights an important point:

Working more does not always mean working smarter.

When Extra Effort Only Increases Costs
Imagine someone starts an online mobile accessories store. Sales are lower than expected, so they decide to add more products to their shop to boost revenue.

A few weeks later, the product count has grown, but sales haven’t changed much. They spend more money, run more ads, and spend time managing the new inventory. Yet, the core problem remains unsolved.

Perhaps they haven’t chosen the right target market. Perhaps their prices aren’t competitive compared to rivals. Or maybe customers see no compelling reason to buy from their store.

In such situations, increasing the product catalog or ad spend may only drive up costs without generating proportional revenue.

Therefore, extra effort becomes valuable only when we know which specific problem that effort is meant to solve.

The Difference Between Being Busy and Making Progress
One common mistake many people make is confusing a busy daily schedule with actual progress.

Someone might spend the entire day responding to messages, publishing posts, tweaking website designs, checking out competitors, and adding new features—feeling accomplished at the end of the day. But an important question remains: Which of these activities actually attracted more customers, increased sales, or reduced costs?

This doesn’t mean routine tasks are unimportant. Customer support, content creation, and site maintenance can be essential. The issue is that we must understand what role each activity plays in reaching our goals.

For instance, if an online store’s main problem is a lack of visitors, improving the checkout process alone won’t fix it. If the site gets plenty of traffic but no purchases, increasing the ad budget might be the wrong move.

In fact, before planning to do more work, we must identify: What is the primary barrier to our progress?

There is also another crucial issue. Even if two people work equally hard, make similar decisions, and use comparable methods, they may still achieve vastly different outcomes.

Is Success Always a Result of Merit?
Sometimes, a person fails to reach their desired outcome despite great effort and sound decisions, while someone else succeeds with less experience or even questionable choices. This difference isn’t always about intelligence, perseverance, or capability; sometimes, factors beyond our control are at play.

Luck is one of those critical factors.

By luck, we don’t just mean winning the lottery or finding money on the street. Sometimes, luck means meeting the right person at the right time, entering a field precisely when the market demands a product, or having an opportunity arise that wasn’t available to others.

Imagine someone working on an idea for years, but when their product is finally ready, there is still insufficient demand. A few years later, someone else enters the market with a similar idea and succeeds—not necessarily because their idea was better, but because conditions changed and people now needed something they previously didn’t care about.

This isn’t limited to business. Birthplace, family economic status, access to quality education, social connections, and even unforeseen events can alter the course of people’s lives. Some people have access to resources from day one that others must spend years striving to attain.

Of course, this doesn’t mean effort is useless or that everything is pure luck. The point is that effort, luck, and environmental conditions do not operate in isolation. Effort increases the probability of encountering an opportunity, but it does not guarantee that the opportunity will materialize or yield the desired result.

On the other hand, when someone achieves success, we usually tell their story backward from the end. We see their good decisions, admire their perseverance, and make their journey seem logical and predictable. Yet, many others may have made similar decisions and failed—people whose stories are rarely heard.

This is what makes us sometimes oversimplify success: as if anyone who tries hard enough automatically wins, and anyone who fails must have made a mistake. The reality, however, is much more complex.

While we may not control every factor influencing the outcome of our lives, we can learn to view success and failure more accurately: neither attributing others’ success solely to their merit nor viewing our own setbacks purely as a sign of incompetence.

Ultimately, it is important to distinguish between two things: what factors drive success, and what factors cause individuals with similar effort and ability to achieve different outcomes. To answer the first question, we must examine our own behavior and decisions; to answer the second, we must recognize the role of luck and circumstances that are not always in our hands.