I agree that the circumstances we are born into are largely outside our control.

I may not have expressed my own point clearly: I’m not saying that luck lies in our decisions. I’m saying that our decisions themselves are not entirely under our conscious control. Our genetic makeup influences our dispositions and choices, and we often don’t even understand why we are inclined to choose one thing over another.

So my broader point is that luck is not the result of anything we consciously choose to do, including whether or not we work hard. Whether an outcome turns out to be fortunate or unfortunate is not something we can choose or change through conscious effort.

Maybe I'm being a bit too pessimistic here?