Iam a great believer in luck,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

Most business leaders will tell you that hard work and skill, rather than chance, are the keys to success. Luck does exist but it is something that must be mastered and controlled. “For the most part, I think you create your own luck in business,” says John Cridland, director-general of the CBI, the UK employers’ federation.

In his book On Leadership, Allan Leighton, former Royal Mail chairman and chief executive of Asda, focuses on characteristics such as skill, determination, intuition and hard work as essential to success – with luck playing only a minor role. He quotes electronics retail entrepreneur Julian Richer as saying that “luck is taking advantage of opportunities”.