Victor Niederhoffer was a wildly successful hedge fund manager who was invited to partner up with George Soros in 1982.

Later, he decided to stop working with George Soros because he wanted to move on and do his own thing.

Soros was so impressed with the guy, that he sent his son to work for him.

To Niederhoffer, it was his talent, hard work and smarts that made him a multi-millionaire.

But to Nassim Taleb, this could just be a rationalization after the fact.

Victor Niederhoffer’s success, Taleb supposes, could be largely due to luck.

Of course, most of Wall Street thought that Taleb was crazy.

But then in 1997, Niederhoffer’s investment fund blew up and he was forced to shut it down.

He later opened a new fund and it went on to do well… but then blew up again in 2007.

Was Niederhoffer really a superior speculator? Or did Taleb have a point about luck being a big factor?

Check out this article about Niederhoffer’s interactions with Taleb, as written by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a long (but enjoyable) read, so you might want to bookmark the page to read over the weekend.

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