Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
It discusses people that are very successful, the "outliers" and shows how their success, in no small part, is due to what in laymans terms could be called getting a "lucky" break. It talks about how those success stories can be traced back to being given very specific opportunities which those people took advantage off. Many of those opportunities are completely arbitrary and completely outside the control of the individual. For example ethnicity, social class and even time of birth.
An example from the first chapter is successful ice hockey players in Canada. It details the reason why there are virtually no professional ice hockey players born in the last quarter of the year and why nearly half of all professional players are born in January, February and March. In other words why an accident of birth increases the chances of being a successful ice hockey player astronomically.
