Yeah, I grew up in real “bootstraps” family. They’re some of the hardest working people I know and not a one of them has managed to claw their was above lower middle class.

Dad’s generation is still all true believers though. Won’t admit they’ve been tricked, they’re convinced that they just weren’t smart enough.

Chris Rock said it best in one of his stand-ups. I paraphrase, but he basically said

Schools are just lying to children. ‘You can be anything you want’. No you can’t! You can be anything you’re good at, and even then, only if they’re hiring.

Oddly everyone that was born in to a rich family is insanely “successful”.

Luck does most of all the heavy lifting, especially where and to whom you are born.

I think another lie is money = success. Money really just means security.

they missed the one actual thing that leads to success, money. Just about everyone makes success, doin their jobs, making things work, products and services are made that people pay for. Just that the people that own that success are whoever have the most money. That’s it, no other qualifiers.

Why is luck at the end? It is literally the single one that define everything. Connection, education, support, even talent are result of pure luck.

This is science

Every single item in that list depends on luck. Even hard work is only possible if you don’t suffer from some condition that stops you from doing so (narcolepsy, for example), which is a matter of, yep, luck.

When it’s more like daddy has friends + daddy’s friend hires me + coasting off other people’s work = success.