Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

Ray Kroc used this line in the context of his hard-driving business ethos: that apparent “luck” in entrepreneurship is usually the visible result of sustained effort, persistence, and disciplined execution. The sentiment aligns closely with Kroc’s self-mythology as a late-blooming success who built McDonald’s into a global enterprise through relentless work, attention to systems, and aggressive expansion. The quote is commonly attributed to him in motivational and business settings, often presented as a distillation of lessons from his years selling, franchising, and scaling operations—where preparation and grind create the conditions in which opportunities can be seized.

The quote recasts “luck” as an earned return—like a dividend—paid out by sustained effort (“sweat”). Kroc’s point is not that chance disappears, but that hard work increases exposure to opportunities, improves readiness to exploit them, and compounds small advantages over time. The aphorism also functions as a moral claim: success is legitimized when it is tied to labor and perseverance rather than mere fortune. In a business setting, it encourages a bias toward action and endurance, implying that what outsiders call luck is often the visible outcome of invisible preparation, long hours, and repeated attempts.