Success

"You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be."
--Godfrey of Ibelin (Kingdom of Heaven)

Increasingly, it seems, success is being questioned. One argument is that successful people get there because of exogenous factors such as heredity, upbringing, and luck.

If we split luck out into a separate 'error' term, exogenous factors constitute one of three sets of factors in the success equation:

Success = endogenous factors + exogenous factors + error (luck)

Because the exogenous factors are largely predetermined, they resemble a constant term in the success equation--a success baseline of sorts. It seems likely that this success baseline is tiny compared to a person's potential for success.

Achieving success beyond the baseline requires an individual to engage endogenous factors. Skill levels honed through practice. Knowledge gained through learning. Proper attitude such as confidence and persistence.

Those factors under the control of the individual are those that determine ultimate level of success.