Random chance

I'm currently reading Fooled by Randomness by Nicholas Nassim Taleb. So far it is much better than his latest book "The Black Swan". It's made me think more about riches and luck, and I will post a review of it as soon as I have finished reading it. Is getting rich no more than a random chance?

People can get rich and successful purely by luck, but generally like almost every other area of life, its better to have a plan, in order to optimise your chances. If you drive a car to a destination with a clear map of how to get there, you have a much better chance of reaching your goal than if you did nothing and waited to get there purely by chance.

There is a cause and effect principle when it comes to getting rich. If you save money, you will have more of it. It will not accumulate by chance.

I reject the random theory as a primary way to create riches. This is because if you leave life mainly to chance, you just drift along in the ocean of existence, without getting anywhere. There is a great book called The Power of Focus, which basically says that we must take responsibility for our lives, and not leave success to random chance.

The Richest Man in Babylon says this about luck:"Do you still think it but an inconsistency of fate that some men have much gold while others have naught? Then you err". This means that riches are not reliably due to luck. They are more consistently caused by following time tested rules.