The harder i work, the luckier i get original quote

This quote is wrongly attributed to Gary Player, a professional golfer. However, his usage of the saying made it popular. Arnold Palmer also used it.

It is also used by many journalists over the course of time to help build a premise or base for a story. One can easily tells the relationship this quote would have with sports figures but it can easily transfer to other less glamorous skills.

Do You Get Luckier When You Practice?

Ironically, the more one practices something, the less lucky they get. This is because the more skilled you get, the more refined your product is.

Fundamentally, if you practice a swing enough times, you will swing like that more consistently thereby reducing the amount of times you swing perfect by “luck” and also lowering the chances of getting “unlucky”.

Acquired Skill and The Snowball Effect

This also translates to expectations. The more you practice, the more skilled you become, the more you expect a certain result, the more confidence you gain and ultimately the more success you are likely to have.

However, one should take the time to practice properly as doing something wrong and practicing it can lead to repeated failure. There are many stories about someone with great talent failing to live up to potential due to not practicing. In some of these cases the blame is wrongly put on “luck” or lack thereof.

Confidence + Practice = Successful

In reality, practice takes away luck or randomness altogether. As pointed out earlier, knowing the likely results has a huge impact on confidence and expectations. While you cannot remove randomness completely you can reduce the impact it has on whatever skill you practice.

This quote leads to another popular saying. “To do the same thing over and over and expect a different result is by definition insanity”. Used together with practice one can see the value. By not practicing a skill then expecting your results to be different is both “unlucky” and “insane”.

This quote about the relationship between work and luck comes from famous film producer Samuel Goldwyn. Often actors, entrepreneurs, and other people long to get that one "lucky break," forgetting perhaps the combination of luck and hard work that most success takes.

There are few true overnight successes. Behind what looks like sudden success is often years of work, trial and error, and failures. But the harder you work, the more good ideas and chances you may make for yourself.

Among Goldwyn's other great quotes is another point about luck:

I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.

Here's wishing you those opportunities and good luck, generated by hard work. Update: Looks like Goldwyn's quote is actually a play on a famous quote by Thomas Jefferson, who said:

„Another difficult thing that I experience is when after such a year of activity I have to empty my studio – completely. And I have found that this part only gets harder. You might think it gets easier, but I really just find it gets harder.“

—  Isa Genzken German sculptor 1948

2001 - 2010, Out to Lunch with Isa Genzken' (2009)

„It gets harder all the time, Bev Shaw once said. Harder, yet easier. One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be hard as hard can be grows harder yet.“

—  J.M. Coetzee, book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace

„Believe me, I work, I drudge, I grind all day long and I do so with pleasure, but I should get very much discouraged if I could not go on working as hard or even harder... I feel, Theo, that there is a power within me, and I do what I can to bring it out and free it. It is hard enough, all the worry and bother with my drawings, and if I had too many other cares and could not pay the models I should lose my head.“

—  Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890

quote in his letter to brother Theo, from The Hague, The Netherlands in Jan. 1882; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 20 (letter 171)
1880s, 1882

„I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.“

—  Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States of America 1743 - 1826

Has been attributed to Stephen Leacock's "Literary Lapses" (1910), but the quote does not appear in the Project Gutenberg edition http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6340/6340.txt of this work.
Misattributed
Variant: I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Variant: I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

„I feel basic science is getting its due now. I used to say earlier that Dr Homi Bhabha should get this honour and also some other eminent researchers. Scientists work very, very had but rarely get recognition. I have been working for 62 years. I was 17 when I started my research. I am going to be 80 soon.“

—  C. N. R. Rao Indian chemist 1934

Quoted in CNR Rao: Bharat finds a jewel in science, 17 November 2013, 22 December 2013, Deccan Chronicle http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131117/news-current-affairs/article/cnr-rao-bharat-finds-jewel-science,

„Everybody, they say Roberto just swings the bat and hits the ball. I work hard. No one works harder than I do. People think things come easy to me. They don't.“

—  Roberto Clemente Puerto Rican baseball player 1934 - 1972

As quoted in "Clemente Says Hitting Does Not Come Easy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UagkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xqAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5876%2C6101257 by Ralph Bernstein (AP), in The Reading Eagle (March 26, 1968)
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1968</big>

„Frances and Sebastian accept each other right from the get go, and the world the characters live in is one that is willing to change. I think you buy it because it’s wrapped in this fairy tale theme and playing off these Disney Princess movie tropes. It would be a lot harder if I went for a strict historical theme.“

—  Jen Wang American comics artist 1984

On how gender identity and other themes are addressed in The Prince and the Dressmaker in “INTERVIEW WITH JEN WANG, AUTHOR AND ARTIST OF THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER” https://bookriot.com/2018/02/06/prince-and-the-dressmaker/ in BookRiot (2018 Feb 6)

„Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.“

—  Ronald Reagan American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989) 1911 - 2004

Remarks at the Annual Salute to Congress Dinner http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/20481b.htm (4 February 1981)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Variant: Thomas Jefferson once said, "We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works." And ever since he told me that I stopped worrying.
Context: Thomas Jefferson made a comment about the Presidency and age. He said that one should not worry about one's exact chronological age in reference to his ability to perform one's task. And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

„I love beautiful; always have. I never saw why I should hate what I wish I had. Love it harder. Work your way closer. Clasp your hands around it tighter. Till you find a way to make it yours.“

What is Thomas Jefferson's most famous quote?

What did Gary Player say about luck?

What does the harder I work the luckier I get mean?