Destiny or Individual Effort?

What decides whether we succeed or fail in our lives?What decides our status in society, our marital and social happiness, our financial status etc.Some would say it is our individual effort while others would ascribe it to destiny?I am reminded of an incident published some years back about the experience of a Science Graduate who lost a year because another student opened the water tap which splashed into the Gravimetric powder kept ready for weighment,and blew it off resulting in poor marks in Chemistry practicals.Was it his carelessness in not keeping it covered?Surely, he would have been doing it hundreds of time during his time in the Chemistry Lab; the chance of someone opening the tap was perhaps one in a million but in this case it happened.Could it have been prevented?Or was it destined to happen and therefore happened.
In another case, a palmist travelling in a train decided to pass his time by examining the palms of a passenger sitting next to him.To his surprise he found that the life line indicated that the life span was over. He turned to another passenger in the coach and observed a similar situation.The palmist was surprised when he found that all the passengers whose palms he examined were travelling in the same boat i.e., their life span was also over. He tried to caution his co passengers that some disaster was likely to happen and advised them to get down at he next stop.No one listened to him.He then went to the Station Master and requested him not to allow the train to go ahead as he saw a disaster waiting for it.No one listened to him and the train rolled away leaving the palmist behind.Subsequently, the train was involved in a major accident and all the passengers in the coach where the palmist was travelling were killed.Who should be blamed? Destiny or individual effort or lack of it?
When I undertook the Civil Services examination, in the 1950's, the results of the competition were very revealing.Some of us got the Service of our choice, while others felt they deserved something better.And some who never made to it included some of the brightest and most meritorious of our colleagues.What factors played their role in such cases.How is it that some get all that is aspired for and even more while some do not get even a fraction of what they deserve?It includes all aspects of life.
Is it destiny, which is beyond our control, or some action we did or did not take?I wonder.