It always amazes me how many people refuse to even put themselves in a position to be lucky. The small amount of success I've had in my life has been 99% related to just showing up.
Conflating risk with "position to be lucky". It so happens that to most people, actual big opportunity is often available only at the levels of existential risk.
Not necessarily. Sometimes all it takes to be in the position to be lucky is to reach out to executives at companies you are interested in via a cold email. Some people are too afraid of rejection to do something like that. But I've found that in 1% of those cold email attempts, something really amazing happens. Just gotta put yourself out there.
But how much of that is just a story we tell ourselves so the world seems more just. The biggest CEOs weren't lucky they just worked harder took more risk. But, almost by definition success is luck x risk factor x potential reward.
Fortune can favor the bold, with boldness still being correlated with failure. There are plenty of hard-working people in the game, willing to take big risks and skillful enough to follow through on them, who still end up losing.
Timing and good fortune are often presented as a chance, but you have to be in the game to take advantage of them. Hard work is a big part of that.