It's so easy to ignore luck and focus on risk, even if they're the same things. Room for error lets you stick around long enough to put the odds of success in your favor. The only truly sustainable sources of competitive advantage that I know of are these: Learn faster than your competition; Empathize with customers more%; Be a better communicator or wait longer than your competition. Everything else gets smashed to pieces by competitors who are almost certainly just as smart as you are.