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IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

People succeed because of their hard work; luck has nothing to do with success.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer 1:
Many people are successful in life, which can be explained not only by their hard work. In this essay, I am going to consider that luck is as important as the ability to dedicate our time and energy to work.

We must acknowledge that without a deep understanding of what we do and how we do we can hardly achieve positive outcomes. There are millions of employees who do not go beyond their duties, not moving deeper to comprehend that the process is about. Consequently, they see only a visible side of the iceberg. They are quite satisfied being paid a decent salary and having some bonuses. Such people do not look for challenges; they treasure stability and are not ready for changes. They can spend a whole life doing one and the same work, even if it is extremely boring and irritating,

On the other hand, there are absolutely different people who do not only dedicate all their time to work but comprehend all the stages, distinguish the bonds and even make efforts to improve these processes. Needless to say, it takes a lot of time and inner strength. These people are said to be "burning at work", as they cannot imagine their existence without it.  The job for them is not only a source of wealth but something they are fond and proud of.

Undoubtedly luck plays an invaluable part in climbing a professional ladder. For example, I worked as a teacher of English in Ukraine. 5 years ago it was my first attempt to take part in the programme "Excellence in Teaching" held by the American Department of Education. Despite all my efforts, I was not able to go further than the semifinal. There were two opposite feelings struggling within- the desire to give up and the enormous intention to win. The most unbearable thing was that I could not figure out where I had made a mistake. The next year I filled in the same application forms and wrote exactly the same essay. To my amazement, I became a winner and was granted a scholarship at George Mason University, Virginia. I doubt it can be explained other factors than the luck.

Overall, hard work cannot be underestimated. But only with luck a person can achieve recognisable success. We all should dedicate ourselves to our jobs and climb new summits.

[ by - Helen Dmytriieva ]

Sample Answer 2:
At the present time, people believe that only hardworking people will succeed and there's no place for luck. I totally disagree with the rubric above due to the fact that people cannot earn money without luck and with no luck people won't be able to get a job and it will be proven in the following essay.

Firstly, since the dawn of time people believed to luck, for example, people always carry some kind of talismans or chokers. In the Ireland, people believe that green clover will bring them money and luck. And the situation has not been changed at the present as well. You can hold a questionnaire and ask strangers "do they believe in luck or not?" I'm sure that 100% of people will say ‘yes’; because the luck is an inalienable part of the life of human beings.

Secondly, without luck people won't be able to get even a job. For instance, when people looking for a job, they are searching them on newspapers and magazines and they don't know what expects them there, they only rely on luck and trying to find a suitable job for themselves. Furthermore, even at the school sometimes kids are getting their marks by luck, which means that teachers sometimes can mix up jobs and mark the student wrong. It's also a clear example of luck.

On the other hand, if people will rely on only luck they will not get anything, truly luck is with us but it helps only when we work hard. For example, in difficult situations when people cannot make a choice between something, they are choosing only by their instincts and if they work hard and learn a lot, they know which decision to make, it all comes from experience.

After analysing both sides of this issue, I have concluded that despite the hard work, people always need at least the grain of luck for the successful life.

[ by - Akmal Sharipov ]

Sample Answer 3:
Every person wants to be successful in life. They have been trying their best, studying or working hard to reach what they wish for. Some people believe that success is about hard work. They argue that luck does not have a part in this case. People succeed depend on how big their effort to get what they want, not about fortune. But I disagree with the opinion because I think that success is about effort, pray, and luck.

There are many things that people do for being successful in life, especially in their careers. They spend the time to work as hard as they can and as much as they are able. Success becomes their goal so they push their selves to get that. Successful people in this world are them who always are responsible, honest, hardworking, and lucky.    

Sometimes people feel very confident and they just focus on their effort. They are too busy trying their best to achieve something so they forget that there is an important thing besides an effort: that is luck. I do not want to say that hard work is not important, but I believe that luck influences the result of our effort. For instance, occasionally people have tried their best for doing something but in the end, they do not get what they want.

Many people forget that the biggest power in this universe is God, not themselves. Furthermore, thinking that hard work is the only thing to be success sounds not wise. There were few people fail to reach their dreams although they have worked hard for it. They have spent much of their time to try their best. But who knows, they get something which is not expecting. Is because of luck? Maybe yes because the effort is not enough to be successful. We need luck and definitely, we need God.      

In conclusion, I believe that success is not only about how hard we try but also our luck. Every human has their own luck and their own fate but they have to still try. People should respect the process, not just the result. What happens in future will depend on our effort and the blessing of the Almighty.

[ by - Farahdina Bachtiar ]

Sample Answer 4:
"Success is always a journey but not a destination". I feel that success cannot be a place but it is a part and journey of one's own life. The author of this topic says that people succeed in their lives only because of the hard work but not the luck. According to me, both will play vital roles in every individual person's life. In the below paragraphs I will justify how both are important to succeed.

Firstly, I would like to say that without hard work even God will not help you out in coming over the things in life. So, one should work hard to earn anything. I say this because there are many people around the world who tasted success because of their immense hard work. It is a sheer illusion that one comes up in life without hard work. For instance, everyone knows about the president of America. He was born in a poor family in Kansas, his father somehow managed to send him to the school for education. Then he really worked hard and secured seats in Columbia University and then to his dedication, he completed his law from Harvard Law University with scholarships and stipends.

Now I would like to put emphasis on the luck which is also a required one in success. One may be really hard working but if the place where he or she is residing is underdeveloped then it will be very difficult to achieve the feat. Not only that when we read the stories of great people, we can observe that, they had a coordinating family through which they succeeded, they are not lucky here. One such example is the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. He is a well-known cricketer in the world. He was such a lucky person that he not only had a very good coach and his parents' support but also got a chance to play international cricket at the age of 16, which I feel is terrific. He used to be busy with the cricket schedule and his wife use to take care of their children, so he is lucky enough to have all this.

In the end, I would like to conclude by saying that it is a combination of both hard work and luck that makes a man successful in life in all respects. Having one without another is like a car without any fuel.

[ by - Avinash ]

Sample Answer 5:
Many people think that to be successful someone should rely on working hard and luck has no role in success. I completely disagree with this notion that success only depends on hard work. In my view, the importance of luck should not be ignored to be successful.

Firstly, Lucky people have more advantages than unlucky people. For example, in IELTS exam, to be lucky it is very important to manage to get a high score because you confront a lot of topics in the exam and if you are lucky, the topics may not be tough for you because of your knowledge about them. In the speaking test, you must opt to cue card that is a vital part of your score. If you are not familiar with the topic in the cue card which you choose, you could not achieve to get a high score in the exam even if you study hard and learn a lot of vocabularies. On the other hand, if you know a variety of vocabulary about the topic that you choose, you can get a high score and pass the exam even maybe this is the best score you have ever got. Therefore, to be lucky sometimes is as important as to be hard-working.

Secondly, Luck is essential to be successful in the professional life. For instance, one of my friends, his name is Mehmet, is a kind, smart, and hard-working person, but he is still in the same position since he began to work. However, one of our mutual friend, his name is Ali, is also hard-working but at the same time, he is an amazingly lucky person because he embarked on working the same position in the same company. However, because of having one more certificate than Mehmet, he was promoted to the director post. As a result, he earns a higher salary than Mehmet.

In conclusion, In my opinion, success not only rely on hard work but also rely on to be luck. Thus, lucky people have always advantages to accomplish what they want compared to the unlucky people.

[ by - Ahmet Tekin ]

Sample Answer 6:
Success is the ultimate goal of everyone. All of us are doing our best to achieve success in different fields of life as work and study.
 
People try to achieve success through many ways; some of them are hard workers, they depend on their efforts to gain success. Others are relying on their relations with important or authorised persons to reach their goals. In addition to the previous, there is a category of lucky people where luck plays important role in their lives and helps them very much.

Luck, in my opinion, has a great effects on the people's life, as it can shift their ways into different directions that may change their lives completely to the better, for example: Lionel Messi, the most famous football player in the world, was a son of very poor family in Argentina and suffered from a medical problem while he was children related to his growth and bone formation. The luck leads a scout of one of the biggest football club in Spain to see his skills while he was playing in his area's street in Argentina and presented him to the club, where he obtained the due care and now Lionel Messi is may be the most famous person in the world. Beside of that, luck and coincidence can serve humanity in a positive way, no one can deny the role of luck in the story of Newton and the apple which lead after that to discover the gravity rules.

I tend to see that, hard working is the first step of success and it is a mandatory thing, but also luck is very important. So, from my point of view, I think they are complementing each other.

Last but not least, It should not be left unmentioned that success is the normal result of working hard and one should not only depend on his/her luck for a long time to achieve success because it may not work for many times.

[ by - Waleed Hassanain ]

Sample Answer 7:
There has been a debate whether or not luck plays a part in success. Some people argued that hard work is the only thing that helps people to succeed, whereas others think that luck also contributes to success. Personally, I agree with the latter.

Hard work is definitely crucial when it comes to success. Without any hard work, it is highly unlikely that someone would succeed. For instance, there might be a good opportunity for someone to establish a cyber-security company given the current demand on that field, but if he is unwilling to work hard on developing the firm, it might not flourish.

In my opinion, success occurs when one is willing to commit to one thing, prepare for the right opportunity to come and snatch it when it arises. Steve Jobs would be a good example of this when he developed iPhones despite the popularity of other non-touch screen phones at the time. Thus, when touchscreen phones were finally in a boom, he was well-prepared and made good use of the opportunity.

Nevertheless, I believe that luck is also needed to be accomplished. This is because one has to be in the right place at the right time. An example of this would be a person who has the ability and perseverance to develop a website similar to Google. While he might work really hard on it, if the person does not have any connection to the technology world, it is unlikely that his website would gain much attention.

In conclusion, I think being hardworking is really important to be successful. Still, luck plays a role where having the right opportunity to the right person is also required for success. I do believe, however, that it is more important to keep working hard rather than simply waiting for luck to approach us.

[ by - Helen Natasia Lim ]

Sample Answer 8:
It is believed that people will achieve their goals and have a successful career if they work hard, and luck has no effect on it. To a certain point, I would agree that some people are succeeded due to their diligent and hard working cultures, but I do believe that luck also plays an important part in people's life.

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