If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say one is talent, two is stubbornness or determination, an... — Fred Saberhagen

If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say one is talent, two is stubbornness or determination, and third is sheer luck. You have to have two out of the three. Any two will probably do.

Author: Fred Saberhagen

Insight: Most people obsess over talent because it feels like the one thing they can't control—either you have it or you don't. But Saberhagen's framing shifts something important: talent alone gets you nowhere. You need at least one more ingredient, and the good news is that the other two are entirely up to you. Stubbornness is the underrated one. It's what keeps you showing up after the third rejection, the failed project, the year when nothing clicked. It's not glamorous, but it's relentless. Paired with even modest talent, it compounds over time in ways raw ability never will. Meanwhile, luck is real—but here's the twist: the stubborn person is in the game often enough that luck actually has something to work with. You can't control whether opportunity knocks, but you can control whether you're home when it does. The real permission Saberhagen gives is permission to stop waiting for the perfect combination. If you've got talent and determination but luck hasn't arrived yet, you're still in the race. And if you're not naturally gifted at something but you're willing to be relentless about it, history is full of people who pulled that off too.