For years my wife and I have been accused of being lucky. We denied it and attributed it all to hard work. But now, I'm not so sure. I see a lot of other people make good choices and work hard, but they don't seem to get the same breaks.
So what was our luck? Born white. Born in the US. Grew up in a small town with good schools. Was able to pay for college on my own, working several jobs, and had college loans of just $1,500. Moved to Silicon Valley in '82 and had a good run of working for successful startups. Got lucky buying several houses that each significantly appreciated. My wife got lucky as a stock broker and had 1.8M in her 401K by the time we were 40. Moved back to the Midwest expecting to make less $$ than we did in CA, and lucked out getting a job that pays far more. And on and on.
But on the flipside, have had a few unlucky things happen, too. Dad went to prison when I was a toddler. Dad died at age 35 from massive heart attack when I was 8. I had heart attack when I was 27, requiring a quad by-pass. I've had several more heart attacks and was told the next step was a heart transplant. But, somehow I got lucky, put a bigger focus on exercise and diet, and my condition improved just enough to move me over the threshold so that I no longer need that.
My wife's 401K got clobbered back in '99 dropping the value to under $1M. My youngest son was diagnosed with same hereditary heart disease my dad had, and that I have. But, he's being effectively treated with a combo of meds.
So, yep, all in all, we've been lucky.