I kind of used it intentionally as a trigger word but there does seem to be a lot of chance in success stories. Also, how many people are going to tell the story about how they started a boring company that never hit it big? You are not going to hear about all the failed companies, you hear about successes. I agree with you that persistence and work ethic are probably major drivers in success but to say there is no element of chance and it is entirely on you if you succeed or not seems highly unlikely.