Fortunate son

I am a very lucky man.

All of my life, I have been the beneficiary of fortunate circumstances. If I knew back then that my life would lead me to the place where I am today, I would likely be amazed and quite pleased. Virtually everything that I could have ever asked for is either in place or on the way to becoming reality.

Life is good.

This article in the Atlantic discusses how luck plays a major role in our lives. In contrast to the idealized version of the Horatio Alger story in the American myth, many of our most prominent citizens owe their fortunes to accidents of happenstance or blind luck. It flies in the face of the wildly popular view that the wealthy and the powerful achieved everything that they did on their own without any outside assistance.

I think back to the debate in the last presidential election. The debate at that time started out with Sen. Warren pointing out that no entrepreneur succeeds without a healthy serving of public assistance. Whether through the form of student aid or solid roads or clean air and water, every one of us relies in large part on a social contract with our fellow neighbors.

Make no mistake, there is still effort required. I have little doubt that the successful among us have labored mightily in order to come out ahead. That doesn't mean that they weren't also lucky. I guess the analogy I would draw is to professional sports--especially team sports. There is certainly no question that each of the individual players is talented and among the best in the world. But I think it's wrong for the champions to dismiss the efforts of the vanquished. It's not like the losing team is not trying hard. Sometimes the better team will end up losing on a bad break through no fault of their own. I don't think anyone will say that luck diminishes the victory!

In any case, I am thankful for all that I have been able to achieve and looking forward to what might come.

Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/why-luck-matters-more-than-you-might-think/476394/