Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey says believing that success comes from luck instead of hard work and talent is wrong and downplays the importance of human agency and effort.
Discussing the belief that wealth and success come from luck or factors such as birthplace and social circle on “The Ramsey Show,” he said it is “ridiculous” to dismiss the role of personal effort and human agency in achieving success. He said that although many people believe luck, including social connections and family background, determines success, the “evidence” suggests otherwise.
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“This is absolutely moronic,” Ramsey said. “It rolls socialism in with a red carpet, this idea that wealth has to be redistributed because it was just random blind luck. I mean, you don’t have any right to claim your success was from hard work or talent or both.”
Ramsey said that if success is assumed to come from blind luck, then there is no reason to work hard, pursue education, make a personal effort to improve one’s life, or strive to succeed.
“You see how demotivating that is?” Ramsey said. “It’s grading the whole freaking culture on a curve because they’re too freaking lazy to work. They won’t get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home.”
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He cited Thomas Stanley’s book, “The Millionaire Next Door,” and said 80% of U.S. millionaires are first-generation wealthy who built their fortunes instead of inheriting them. Ramsey said most of these people became wealthy by working hard, saving, investing, and improving their skills over time, and that it would be “absurd” to claim their money came from luck.
“It’s the idea that a farmer who plants seed and gets a crop after watering it and doing all the weeding and making sure that the land is taken care of, versus the farmer who just stands back and looks at the dirt, is lucky when his harvest comes in,” Ramsey said. “It was just luck. It was just luck.”
Ramsey said that sports stars like basketball player Michael Jordan and golfer Tiger Woods didn’t reach the top because of luck. He said the business world also has its own “Michael Jordans” and “Tiger Woods,” and luck has “nothing to do” with their success.
