Examples of unfair advantages – being tall in basketball, being rich before starting a business, knowing someone at a company when applying for a job etc.

• Location and Luck – being in the right place at the right time

1. A good location affects your vibe and makes it easier to make friends, find out business insights, have access to capital and better infrastructu...

• The reality is in the middle of these two:

- You can be unlucky and still successful (e.g. Oprah Winfrey was raised in a poor, traumatising, unstable household but still became wildly successful)

- But hard work can’t undo luck in all cases (e.g. if Warren Buffett was born black or ...

• Education and Expertise – formal schooling and your self-learning/gained knowledge

1. Education can be formal/informal – doesn’t matter
2. Three main benefits from formal education – knowledge, network and signalling that comes with a degree.

...

• There are two leading, opposing narratives on how success/wealth is attained:

1. Luck – rich people got rich due to factors outside their control (luck, timing, natural talent and fate) – their success wasn’t earned (fatalism)
2. Hard work

• Can’t be easily copied or bought
• Unique to you
• Build on each other and have a snowballing, multiplicative effect

The key to success is working hard and smart (on things you are lucky/have unfair advantages in)

An unfair advantage is a condition, asset or circumstance that puts you in a favourable business position

• Lots of money can make you complacent, wasteful and less hungry to succeed
• A lack of intelligence can mean being more humble and willing to ask questions and less overthinking
• A good location costs ...