I&#x27;ve always thought of it more like, there are some qualities that are conducive to success (like not giving up when things don&#x27;t go your way), and there are qualities that make success less likely (illiteracy, poverty, geography, etc.), and of course there&#x27;s an element of luck (the effect of which can be minimized with perseverance and continuous personal growth, but never fully eliminated). But in general, the only people who claim to have a secret to success are those selling books about it. :)<p>In fairness, the preceding paragraph would make a terrible name for a self-help book, so I can&#x27;t really blame publishers either, which is why it&#x27;s nice to have places like HN to talk about stuff like this.