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IS LUCK THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE?

Recent research suggests the world's most successful people are simply the luckiest.

A mathematical model found that success is more often down to luck than it is talent or intelligence.

'We assume the richest people have done something right and deserve our attention and rewards,' Chengwei Lau of Warwick Business School told the British Science Festival in Brighton in September 2017.

'They're still pretty good, but not necessarily the best,' he said.

The reason is that exceptional performance often occurs in exceptional circumstances.

Top performers are often the luckiest people, who have benefited from rich-get-richer dynamics that boost their initial fortune.

Mr Lau said: 'For example, Bill Gates's upper class background enabled him to gain extra programming experience when less than 0.01 per cent of his generation then had access to computers.

'His mother's social connection with IBM's chairman enabled him to gain a contract from the then leading PC company, generating a lock-in effect that was crucial for establishing the software empire.

'Of course, Gates's talent and effort play important roles in the extreme success of Microsoft. But that's not enough for creating such an outlier.'

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