  Luck is considered to be a crucial ingredient to achieve impact in all
creative domains, despite their diversity. For instance, in science, the movie
industry, music, and art, the occurrence of the highest impact work and of a
hot streak within a creative career are very difficult to predict. Are there
domains that are more prone to luck than others? Here, we provide new insights
on the role of randomness in impact in creative careers in two ways: (i) we
systematically untangle luck and individual ability to generate impact in the
movie, music, and book industries, and in science, and compare the luck factor
between these fields; (ii) we show the limited predictive power of
collaboration networks to predict career hits. Taken together, our analysis
suggests that luck consistently affects career impact across all considered
sectors and improves our understanding in pinpointing the key elements in the
prediction of success.
