Fate or Free Will?

Everytime when I hear others blame their success or failure on fate and destiny, I cringe a little bit on the inside.To me, the blaming of certain event on the strings of fate is a surefire sign of  incompetence. It is really easy to come up with an excuse such as: "Oh I was just not meant to do it" or "It's not my fault that I failed, its just that god never created me to succeed." It is always far easier to dodge blame with an excuse rather than to face it for what it is. Fortunately for those too incompetent to deal with their problems, fate is always there to be blamed on. In my opinion, the work you do and the actions you make define yourself. For example, if you dont take the time to study and prepare for a test, you are bound to do poorly. There is no accurate reference to fate in this situation and other like this. You cannot say: "Fate never meant for me to do well on this test." unless if you are amongst the incompetent masses of the world. So the next time you decide to blame an incident on bad luck or fate, reflect upon yourself: did you actually put the work and effort into succeeding, or did you just do nothing and decide to take a leap of faith?