It’s widely believed that success is attributed to hardwork and talent.

However there’s a third factor…

The luck and unique opportunities that ‘happen’ to you!

In 1969, most colleges — let alone schools — didn’t have computers.

Now, everyone might be walking around with a computer in their pockets, one in their bag, one at home…

But back then, very few schools had a computer.

One of them — Lakeside — provided a one-in-a-billion opportunity for parents in Seattle, giving their kids access to computer classes.

These lucky 8th graders of this school had the privilege of studying programming!

And you know who one of those lucky 8th graders was?

Bill Gates.

Gates had the opportunity of a lifetime, just because his parents had sent him to Lakeside.

At a time when most people didn’t even really know — or care — what a computer did…

This gave him the chance to be part of an extremely rare computer club!

This computer club had the funds to buy technology that nobody had.

And this gave Gates that unique opportunity to learn programming using top-of-the-line systems.

Was luck enough?

Of course not!

He studied really hard. Dropped out of some classes to program. Spent his summers testing software for companies — as a teenager!

However, Gates had an opportunity that nearly no one else had, and he realized that.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, suggests that… despite talent, in order to be successful, you need to have special opportunities to perfect that skill in 10,000 hours.

“In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”

― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

Similarly, Mozart, the Beatles and many other “outliers” have had special opportunities and embraced that by perfecting their skills…

But what about you? About me? About us, living now?

We are really lucky to live in this time of massive opportunities.

Think about it.

If circumstances present you with an opportunity that nobody else has… what will you do?

Maybe that exact opportunity gives you the leap you need to be ahead of everybody else in 10 years!

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