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Ayn Rand Quote on "luck" etc.

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"That idea of hardships being good for character and of talent always being able to break through is an old fallacy. Talent alone is helpless today. Any success requires both talent and luck. And the “luck” has to be helped along and provided by someone. … Talent does not survive all obstacles. In fact, in the face of hardships, talent is the first one to perish; the rarest plants are usually the most fragile. Our present-day struggle for existence is the coarsest and ugliest phenomenon that has ever appeared on earth. It takes a tough skin to face it, a very tough one. Are talented people born with tough skins? Hardly. In fact, the more talent one possesses the more sensitive one is, as a rule. And if there is a more tragic figure than a sensitive, worthwhile person facing life without money – I don’t know where it can be found. …

[H]elp for young talent …. not only provides human, decent living conditions which a poor beginner could not afford anywhere else, but it provides that other great necessity of life: understanding. It makes a beginner feel that he is not, after all, an intruder with all the world laughing at him and rejecting him at very step, but that there are people who consider it worthwhile to dedicate their work to helping and encouraging him. Isn’t such an organization worthy of everyone’s support? … So many gamble on roulette, and slot machines, and horses. Why not gamble for a change on human beings and human futures?"

Ayn Rand, in Letter to Marjorie Williams (18 June 1936); in Letters of Ayn Rand, pp. 31-33.

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Seems to me Ayn Rand is calling for a return to the sort of patronage of the arts that used to be common before the government began mandating forced patronage though taxes which were then dispersed as grants to the most popular or connected Operas, Orchestras and Art Galleries.

Edited by Zip
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There's an earlier thread about luck here, as well as some discussion in the "Forrest Gump" thread.

In the letter you quoted, I think Rand is overstating the role of luck. Talent and luck both have a role in what one achieves. Also, there are other personality traits that matter. One might group them under "talent" but that would not be an accurate name: for instance, things like perseverance or action-orientation.

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Thanks for reminding me of that excerpt from Letters of AR; It puzzled me on first reading as the closest I have ever seen her get to the admission that one can be aided by others in the battle of life.

Now, it reminds me of her high degree of warmth and humanity which coexisted with her uncompromising intellect. Also of her extreme awareness of life around her in all it's levels, from slot-machines to human endeavour!

No ivory tower philosopher, this!!

On luck: I noticed [ on the thread Software nerd supplies] 'luck' being referred to as a concept. I doubt this, and prefer to see it as a 'phenomenon'.

Luck can play a powerful role in life. This should not be denied.

Speaking as an experienced poker player, Luck, Chance, and Odds were a big part of my life, for many years.

These are my basic observations-

'Good' Luck is no more than an APPROPRIATE SITUATION, benefitting myself . In other words, good cards, good dice ,etc., are appropriate cards; the player I beat with those cards is holding Inappropriate cards [relative to mine] and therefore has 'bad luck.'

Good Luck must be recognized when it occurs, and pounced upon, to gain maximum reward.

There are no patterns to luck. But the Law of Averages eventually evens out.

The more often a skilfull player enters a game the greater his 'win expectancy'.

So it is in life. Given the random situations we live with, where elements and people can interact in unpredictable and infinite ways, leading to coincidence, synchronicity and ( the mystics favourite) even serendipity, why should one not use the phenomenon of chance when it comes one's way?

The beauty,BTW, is that life- unlike poker- is rarely a Zero Sum game.

My win or success seldom means your loss and failure.

This is not to detract from a person living a self-determining life; with rationality; with morality;with consciousness. In fact these (if you like) are like the honed skills of a poker player.

He exposes himself to life, knowing that with perserverance , he will be ready for Luck when it comes around - as it must.

A top golfer [ Gary Player ], was once told " that was a lucky shot ", by an onlooker.

His reply - "Funny, the more I practise, the luckier I get !"

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I think this is a very important quote to help people understand that talent is not everything. There are many people I have come across recently who believe that they lack whatever innate talents one needs to be successful. In other words, I've met a man who dreams of being something, but feels that if he discovers he lacks the talent to do it (a talent which in his eyes can only be gained at birth) then his dream has failed and he should give up.

To me, this mentality is not only untrue, it is sad. I was always taught, and I continue to maintain, that a person can do anything he wants to do so long as he never gives up on it. I think that is something Rand is helping to point out in this quote, even though it would seem to say the opposite.

I am stunned at her mention of "The rarest plants are the most fragile..." as that is something I commonly tell myself and other people in situations of hardship. Once a person begins to treat every hardship as an opportunity to overcome it and become better, nothing can ever bring him down.

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  • 3 months later...
Talent alone is helpless today. Any success requires both talent and luck. And the “luck” has to be helped along and provided by someone.

I take this to mean more than luck as a random chance influencing someone's life - sure, life has that element, but I think she's talking about "fortune" in the sense of random beneficent actions by others. If I take Rand correctly, this should be done in two cases: when assisting someone comes at little or no cost to you (giving strangers direction, or helping someone with ethical problems, or [as a psychologist my family knows said] helping them "interpret reality", meaning make sense of the world), or when it is a conscious investment in someone's life (ie, seeing someone's development and growth as a personal value).

I personally find it remarkable how some college students I know come to the University (UC Berkeley) feeling totally isolated (especially given the local culture!), and then they discover that there's a student Objectivist Club which gives them an instant bond and support network. The observation made me think a bit on "loneliness":

When he develops his first values and conscious convictions, particularly as he approaches adolescence, he feels an intense desire to share them with a friend who would understand him; if frustrated, he feels an acute sense of loneliness. (Loneliness is specifically the experience of this type of child—or adult; it is the experience of those who have something to offer...
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