Leveraging luck

Getting CEOs and other tech titans to talk about luck is about as easy as g etting President Clinton to talk about sex. Often, in fact, the more famous and successful they are, the more they believe their own hype (or the more they need others to believe their hype). Futurist Paul Saffo sums it up th is way: "The majority of these big-ego CEOs-if you ask them the question,'D on't you feel lucky? -are going to punch you in the nose." Funny Saffo shou ld say that. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Scott McNealy, John Chambers, and a host of other bigwigs did just that-gave our reporters a "no" right to thei r snoots. But, fortunately, other leading thinkers and entrepreneurs were m uch more gracious and forthright. Here are their luck stories.