In a thoughtful and highly engaging article, Roxana Barbulescu, who was one of my professors during my MBA specialisation in Advanced Management at HEC Paris, challenges a widely held assumption about professional success: that hard work and individual merit are the primary – if not the sole – determinants of a successful career.
She argues persuasively that chance and contingency play a far more significant role than is typically acknowledged. Careers are not linear or fully controllable paths, but are shaped to a considerable extent by opportunities, encounters and situational factors that lie beyond our direct influence. What may seem like minor, everyday events can, in retrospect, become decisive turning points.
Access to mentorship is also mentioned as a key to success – which is why I am actively involved as a mentor in the University of St.Gallen’s mentorship program.
One particularly compelling implication of this perspective is how it reframes success and failure. If chance is indeed a structural component of career trajectories, then success may call for greater humility, while setbacks should not too readily be attributed to individual shortcomings.
Importantly, this is not an argument for passivity. Rather, it highlights the importance of positioning oneself to benefit from serendipity: staying open, cultivating diverse networks and being receptive to the unexpected.
A clear reading recommendation for anyone interested in careers, performance and the broader question of how much control we truly have over professional outcomes.
Read: Why Hard Work Isn’t Enough: The Role of Chance in Career Success (by Roxana Barbulescu on HEC Dare)