The smart man makes his own luck.
replyIn some way ways, that’s what smart working does. Being at the right place, at the right time, because you were smart enough to realize you should hang around that place.
All one can do is try and stack the odds. I prefer to say that rather than "making your own luck".
replyYou can equip rings of +1 to dice rolls but most of us don't get weighted dice.
Playing the odds is fine in poker if your pile of chips is big enough to ride out the bad dice rolls, but this doesn't always work in life. There are too many decisions where you're forced to go all in.
I do still largely agree with you, that our decisions influence our future options. But I feel many people who just say "we make our own luck" fail to realize just how much luck played a role in their lives. Survivorship bias and all that.