Sometime in mid to late '70s Psychology Today had an article by an aspiring business psychologist on the attitudes towards the role that luck had played in the success of executives and managers in Fortune 500 businesses.  All I recall is the conclusion: out of all those surveyed not one attributed any significant role in their success to luck .  They all credited merit and hard work!  What this demonstrated was that there was a powerful consensus that was very successfully conveyed to all newcomers that, in corporate America, success was due to ability and hard work and that the role of luck was to be vigorously denied if one were to "fit in."  The problem with studies on such matters is one of obtaining access to a representative sample of that population while retaining sufficient independence to provide any integrity to the survey.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."