The real cleverness here lies in Jefferson's refusal to separate effort from fortune—he's not saying hard work *replaces* luck, but that they're mysteriously entangled. Most people treat them as opposites, believing the fortunate are born lucky and the industrious must compensate for bad luck; Jefferson suggests instead that preparation and visibility create the conditions where chance can find you. A writer who submits ten manuscripts gets rejected nine times but lands one agent meeting that changes everything, while the writer who submits nothing never meets that agent at all. The unlucky, in this view, aren't those denied fortune but those too exhausted or defeated to be standing where luck might strike.