What excuse do people give you for their lack of success? What is it that successful people say drives them forward?

Great question. Both have one common denominator: failure. One is destroyed by it and the other is strengthened.

Luck. Now I bet some will jump all over me for mentioning this. Would it help if I said it another way, maybe "Man proposes and God disposed"? Or how about if I reminded you that luck was the most important quality that Napoleon sought in selecting his generals. The simple truth is that "the best laid plans of men really do often go astray.". Why? Luck. One more observation. I have often seen very successful people blow fortunes trying to repeat a success while attempting to prove that the first one wasn't simply a matter of luck. The question you have to answer is, what do you do when your luck is bad on the first, second, third... attempt?

As many others already mentioned, the number 1 excuse is "I had bad luck", but my most recent and probably best of the excuse of year was from a Major who did not get selected to LTC because they only selected woman and minorities that year.