English Translation
Success depends on your efforts.
Is it appropriate to interpret 「いかん」 as meaning “the result of” or “the quality of”?
いかん is also written as 如何 in Kanji. [如何] is defined by a dictionary as “事の次第。なりゆき。ようす” (the development of or the change in a certain situation).
いかん was phonetically transformed from いかに (how). So, 成功は努力いかんによる literally means:
How you will make efforts is the determinant of your future success.
“How” doesn’t always mean “the quality of” (good or bad). For example,
理由のいかんを問わず、全員マスクを着用すべきだ。= For whatever reason, all people should wear a face mask.
Maybe there are hundreds of reasons why some people don’t want to wear a face mask. You don’t know all of the reasons at this moment, and you may learn them in the future. It’s unpredictable, so your future learning is about “the development of the current situation (or your knowledge level)”. But there is no good/bad dichotomy for your future learning process.
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