{"id":3612,"date":"2025-07-08T15:58:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3612"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:47","slug":"entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a dirty little secret about what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who fail: Many of the winners have luck on their side, and many of the failures work just as hard but don\u2019t succeed through no fault of their own, according to Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd<\/a> of the University of Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

Shepherd said that stories of entrepreneurs who have failed quite a bit are common. There\u2019s often a disconnect between how investors and other entrepreneurs view them and how they are portrayed in the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sometimes see it in Silicon Valley, where they say, \u2018I\u2019ll only invest in in entrepreneurs who have failed before, because it means that they\u2019ve learned and they know to make tough decisions,\u2019 whereas you see press reports in other parts of the world, or even other parts of America, where they really penalize an entrepreneur who\u2019s failed, despite the fact that they tried their best,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lost their own wealth, but the media ridicule people who have failed,\u201d he said. \u201cI see that in the press sometimes, where they attribute success to the person\u2019s skills and experience, but then when someone fails, they say that there\u2019s something fundamentally wrong with that person, and the press has an anti-failure bias, which doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luck be a lady<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unsuccessful entrepreneurs may have had to deal with a challenging external environment or competitive landscape or face any number of variables beyond their control\u2014regardless of their skills, experience, and effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could have done everything right and then had bad luck, and the other person could have done everything wrong, and just by luck, they ended up being in the right place at the right time, and they were successful,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cIn either case, you don\u2019t actually learn much from those instances, because luck played such a large role, but then they\u2019ll attribute the person who was successful to their decisions and actions, even though it wasn\u2019t the case, and they\u2019ll attribute failure to the person\u2019s decisions and actions, but it wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so it\u2019s really like a form of superstitious learning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re learning something, but actually not gaining any knowledge from it. We\u2019re learning something that\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher There\u2019s a dirty little secret about what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who fail: Many of the winners have luck on their side, and many of the failures work just as hard but don\u2019t succeed through no fault of their own, according to Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22,21,76],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEntrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:58:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":403,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"PERFORMANCE\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/\",\"name\":\"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work - Academy of Management Today\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:58:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Source: Shutterstock\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/\",\"name\":\"Academy of Management Today\",\"description\":\"Smarter, faster business news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\",\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g559188980b254e0e0624aacb72ebc733\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Daniel Butcher\"},\"description\":\"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\\\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/danielbutcher\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/author\\\/daniel-butcher\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work - Academy of Management Today","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Daniel Butcher","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/"},"author":{"name":"Daniel Butcher","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"headline":"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work","datePublished":"2025-07-08T15:58:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/"},"wordCount":403,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp","articleSection":["CAREERS","ENTREPRENEURSHIP","INNOVATION","PERFORMANCE"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/","name":"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work - Academy of Management Today","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp","datePublished":"2025-07-08T15:58:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp","width":1080,"height":720,"caption":"Source: Shutterstock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurial-success-requires-luck-as-well-as-hard-work\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Entrepreneurial Success Requires Luck as Well as Hard Work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/","name":"Academy of Management Today","description":"Smarter, faster business news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c","name":"Daniel Butcher","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g559188980b254e0e0624aacb72ebc733","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Daniel Butcher"},"description":"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp",1080,720,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp",1080,720,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp",1080,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-300x200.webp",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-1024x683.webp",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp",1080,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1.webp",1080,720,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-600x400.webp",600,400,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-350x450.webp",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/businessman-looks-to-the-sky1-100x100.webp",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":3,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/careers\/\" rel=\"category tag\">CAREERS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/entrepreneurship\/\" rel=\"category tag\">ENTREPRENEURSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/innovation\/\" rel=\"category tag\">INNOVATION<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/performance\/\" rel=\"category tag\">PERFORMANCE<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher There\u2019s a dirty little secret about what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who fail: Many of the winners have luck on their side, and many of the failures work just as hard but don\u2019t succeed through no fault of their own, according to Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}