EPJ Data Sci. (2020) 9: 9
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00227-w

Regular article

Success and luck in creative careers

¹ Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
² Department of Computer Science, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
³ ISI Foundation, Torino, Italy
⁴ Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna, Austria

^* e-mail: rsin@itu.dk

Received: 23 September 2019
Accepted: 25 March 2020
Published online: 28 April 2020

Abstract

Luck is considered a crucial ingredient to achieve impact in all creative domains, despite their diversity. For instance, in science, the movie industry, music, and art, the occurrence of the highest impact work and a hot streak within a creative career are very difficult to predict. Are there domains that are more prone to luck than others? Here, we provide new insights on the role of randomness in impact in creative careers in two ways: (i) we systematically untangle luck and individual ability to generate impact in the movie, music, and book industries, and in science, and compare the luck factor between these fields; (ii) we show the surprising presence of randomness in the relationship between collaboration networks and timing of career hits. Taken together, our analysis suggests that luck consistently affects career impact across all considered sectors and improves our understanding in pinpointing the key elements in driving success.