( CNN ) -- Many wealthy , successful Americans regale us with stories of how they worked their rears off to get to where they are . Living proof , they say , that hard work can propel you to heights you can not imagine . I do n't doubt their stories ; I worked hard too . But along with that hard work came something no one seems to acknowledge -- luck . Understandable , for luck says nothing about your smarts or talent or beauty . Luck is a happy accident . Seize it and make it work for you and nine times out of 10 , you 're golden . I 'm not saying only luck brings success . Hard work is necessary too , but it is not sufficient . Did I work harder or think better than hundreds of thousands of others ? I would love to say yes , but although I tried to outsmart my competitors , I know I would not be sitting at CNN without Lady Luck on my side . I know . I hear you . `` You make your own luck ! '' Yes , you can , but it was a lot easier for me to `` make my own luck '' than it was -- is -- for many others . Bear with me . I grew up decidedly middle-class . My father was a steelworker , my mother an office manager and occasional bookkeeper . Neither parent attended college , but they managed to carve out a comfortable life for me , my brothers and sister . There was no money to set aside for college , but I knew my parents expected me to be a college graduate . Lucky me ? Yes . Because my father , a high school graduate , was able to find a well-paying job . Back in the day , manufacturing jobs were plentiful , and they paid well , as did many traditional middle-class jobs . Today , not so much . An article in The New York Times on September 18 , 1987 , reported the average wage for an automaker was $ 13.50 an hour . In today 's dollars , that 's $ 28.47 . ( Annual inflation over this period averaged 2.8 % . ) More than two decades later , thanks to the 2008 recession and the erosion of union power , entry-level unionized autoworkers were paid between $ 14 and $ 17 an hour , while veteran workers earned between $ 28 and $ 38 an hour . So , I was lucky to be born to parents who could afford to feed me , clothe me , house me and , as an added bonus , expect me to make something of myself . Also , my mother was not an alcoholic , and my father was not an ex-con . We lived in a variety of middle-class neighborhoods -- some middle , some lower -- but there were no drug dealers on the corner , no gunshots in the street . There were no metal detectors at the doors or armed security guards patrolling the halls of any of the schools I attended . I did work hard to get through college , though . I worked two jobs for minimum wage -- one in a cafeteria and another at SeaWorld -- to pay my way through school . In addition to those jobs , I interned at WAKR in Akron , Ohio , for free and attended night classes to finish my degree . Ah , you say -- finally -- proof that if you work hard enough you will escape that minimum-wage job and achieve your goals . Except luck played a part here too . According to the College Board , there was little to no growth in college prices in the 1970s . College costs actually just started to rise in 1980 , the year I entered Kent State University . I just missed the massive sticker shock students face today . Since I went to school , college costs have risen at twice and sometimes three times the Consumer Price Index . Still , I was happy to apply and accept government grants and loans to help pay the bills . That internship in Akron paid off too . WAKR-TV hired me . I made minimum wage in my first professional job , but I was not a single mother and did not have to care for aging or sick relatives . I just had to worry about myself . Luckily , a news director in Cleveland named Ron Bilek offered to mentor me and eventually hired me in Columbus , Ohio . Four jobs later , I was off and running for CNN . So yes , I worked hard . I put in long hours . But millions of others have as well . Luck , by definition , means a chance happening of fortunate events . And I would argue that far too few middle-class Americans are now experiencing the same `` happening of fortunate events '' that I did . The majority of middle-class people are struggling not because they do n't work as hard as the most successful Americans , but because it takes more than sweat to succeed and the odds are tougher in 2014 . It 's time for our leaders to help people turn their luck around . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carol Costello .
Carol Costello : Those who succeed often emphasize the power of their hard work . They are not afraid to take risks, and they don't mind taking a risk for others. She says having supportive parents and a good education makes a huge difference . Costello : Higher college costs , tough job market make the odds tougher today .