re: Luck will have very little to do with it.
You're right about the squeaky wheel, I've had plenty of personal experience to back that up. But a little luck never hurts, the right person happening to notice an article or letter, someone in the media reading a letter just after getting an exceptionally high power bill, etc. The first edition of my book got published because I happened to send it to an editor who had just come out of the hospital after a heart attack.
And being lucky isn't just a matter of luck - was it Edison who said "the harder I work, the more luck I have"?
In any case - kick butt, jms and family!