I wrote last week that I am not a great believer in luck in order to succeed in business. To excel, you need to do your very best. More often than not, we create conditions – deliberately or otherwise – through individual skill sets that help us move ahead.

A recent item on the BBC website reminded of something I had overlooked. The true story referred to a professional racing car driver, who suddenly and unusually decided to slow down while taking a corner:

By doing so, he avoided running smack into a pileup around the bend. Watching video of the event later, the driver realised he had taken clues from people in the crowd. They were staring at the crash instead of at him. His subconscious took over and guided him away from the crash.

Call it a gut instinct. Describe this as foresight. You can even say that this is a combination of skill-sets, which we do not realise that we possess, because we are so well-trained.

The question is what encourages us and gives us the confidence to use this instinct? Psychologists, such as Dr Robert Brooks, would argue that children who are empowered – who are taught to be resilient from a relatively young age – excel in this way later on in life.

Now this is interesting when I relate this background to a particular type of client in my business mentoring sessions. They are often the people, who have an idea, prove that it sounds good in theory and then ask me: “But what if it does not work?”. This is frequently the same person who previously told me about their nondescript or sheltered background.

Interestingly, many of these clients are second or third generation members of families with Holocaust survivors. They have been taught not to be noticed and to keep their heads down. On the other hand, a different group of survivors developed a life philosophy of ‘going for it’ and not to be afraid of anyone telling you off.

I am no psychologist. However, I wonder if there is a clinical survey detailing which approach allowed the offspring to learn to ride their luck and go on to success as entrepreneurs.