Prateek Suri: Why Success is forged where hard work and luck converge
Many of the opportunities that defined his career emerged unexpectedly, yet they were recognisable only because of years spent understanding businesses from the ground up, building trust-based relationships, and learning from repeated setbacks.
Prateek Suri. (Courtesy)
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In an age where success is often portrayed as instant or inevitable, Prateek Suri, Chairman and CEO of Maser Group, presents a more nuanced and honest reflection on achievement, arguing that true success is shaped by a rare alignment of persistent hard work and timely luck. According to Suri, effort is the engine that keeps one moving forward, but luck determines when momentum transforms into opportunity.
Having built enterprises across complex and evolving markets, he acknowledges that discipline, resilience, and years of sustained effort formed the backbone of his journey, yet he is equally candid about the influence of timing, circumstance, and unpredictable turns of fate. “Hard work creates readiness,” Suri notes, “but luck decides when readiness finds its moment.”
He believes one of the most damaging myths in modern entrepreneurship is the idea that effort alone guarantees outcomes, a belief that often leads to frustration and misplaced self-blame when external conditions intervene. Markets shift, policies change, and global events unfold beyond individual control, making humility as essential as ambition. In Suri’s view, luck does not undermine merit; rather, it rewards preparation built patiently over time.
Many of the opportunities that defined his career emerged unexpectedly, yet they were recognisable only because of years spent understanding businesses from the ground up, building trust-based relationships, and learning from repeated setbacks. Failures, he reflects, were not wasted chapters but silent training grounds that sharpened judgment and reinforced patience. What appears from the outside as fortunate timing is often the visible outcome of invisible endurance. This balanced outlook has shaped Suri’s leadership philosophy, encouraging caution in success and composure in uncertainty.
Acknowledging luck, he says, keeps leaders grounded and prevents the complacency that often follows achievement. It also reinforces a deeper sense of responsibility, the understanding that success carries an obligation to create pathways for others who may be equally hardworking but less advantaged by timing or access. This belief has influenced not only his business approach but also his growing emphasis on mentorship, volunteering, and social contribution.
To young professionals and entrepreneurs, Suri offers advice rooted in realism rather than rhetoric: focus relentlessly on what can be controlled, effort, preparation, integrity, and learning, while accepting that timing and chance will always play a role beyond human command. Success, he believes, is neither linear nor solitary; it is the cumulative result of persistence, adaptability, and moments when preparation finally meets opportunity.
In recognising both hard work and luck, Prateek Suri reframes success not as entitlement, but as responsibility, something to be built quietly, carried humbly, and sustained with awareness long after the moment arrives.