Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Business
Pursuits

Why Luck Plays a Big Role in Making You Rich

A Cornell economist is alive today because his heart stopped on the right tennis court. He wants us all to know how fortunate we are.
1472575712_GettyImages-134428557
Photographer: William Andrew/Getty Images

Robert Frank was playing tennis one cold Saturday morning in Ithaca, N.Y., when his heart stopped. Sudden cardiac arrest—a short-circuit in the heart’s electrical signaling—kills 98 percent of its victims and leaves most of the rest permanently impaired.

Yet two weeks later, Frank was back on the tennis court.