Paul Rouse: Is the line between success and failure often just luck?

Sports psychologists make clear that there are techniques that help athletes recover from setbacks, but to present success in overcoming outrageous misfortune as a triumph of resilience is grossly simplistic.

THIN LINE: One of the things that people who are successful do not acknowledge enough is how fundamentally important luck is to their success.

One of the things that people who are successful do not acknowledge enough is how fundamentally important luck is to their success.

Mostly, in fact, people tend to dismiss luck as a factor. They have their own version of the old Gary Player line, about the harder he worked, the luckier he got. Or is it, the more he practiced the luckier he got?