Corona virus, China major city lockdowns, etc.

[Niya]

So, it goes both ways to a large extent, but I'm not fully in control. I can choose to walk through the door, and the door is open partly because of my actions, but never entirely because of my actions...in most cases. Of course, in this, as in pretty nearly everything else, you have to add the caveat that there are always exceptions.

Errr. You're kind of right here. Nothing you say here is false but I think it's very important to acknowledge that you yourself can take actions to give yourself choices that wouldn't have just been presented to you otherwise. Using your example of the your choice of where to get educated. Let's say someone was presented with a choice of going to some arbitrary University but they actually want to go to something like Yale. I believe it is entirely possible for this person to take a series of actions that will open up that choice for them. The only issue is are they willing to do what is necessary to obtain the outcome they want. This is essentially what I mean when I say we are solely responsible for what happens in our lives. We can have whatever we want as long as we are willing to do what it takes. I do not believe that a man cannot control his fate. He can if he has the grit to go after what he wants with unparalleled tenacity.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Errr. You're kind of right here. Nothing you say here is false but I think it's very important to acknowledge that you yourself can take actions to give yourself choices that wouldn't have just been presented to you otherwise. Using your example of the your choice of where to get educated. Let's say someone was presented with a choice of going to some arbitrary University but they actually want to go to something like Yale. I believe it is entirely possible for this person to take a series of actions that will open up that choice for them. The only issue is are they willing to do what is necessary to obtain the outcome they want. This is essentially what I mean when I say we are solely responsible for what happens in our lives. We can have whatever we want as long as we are willing to do what it takes. I do not believe that a man cannot control his fate. He can if he has the grit to go after what he wants with unparalleled tenacity.

Ok, good point. If your goal is X, and you are willing to do what it takes to achieve X, then you can get there. In the case of Yale, though, I doubt there is anything any one person can do to guarantee that outcome without connecting with a bunch of other people and leveraging those connections. Grades alone won't get you in there. Money, alone, probably won't either. Both would help, but neither is sufficient on their own. I have one uncle who went there, though (or possibly two, I can't remember), so I might have been able to try to leverage the legacy connection, which was always important for ivy league schools. So, who you are born to can help with THAT particular goal more effectively than hard work or money. Inheritance is alive and well in the US. By the way, I seem to remember reading in the last decade, or so, that legacy acceptance is in decline at ivy league schools. Of course, what happened in the last decade or so doesn't make much difference to me, since college was a long time further back.

For that goal, like so many, the connections you make are the key to the goal. You do have a considerable amount of influence on the connections you make, therefore you have considerable influence on the outcomes you achieve, but it's not through hard work. When you get right down to it, the harder I've had to work on a job (based on calories burned), the less I've been paid. I worked for two summers on a golf course (it was utterly hilarious, almost like CaddyShack levels....but that's a different story). That was mighty hard work many days, but I've never been paid less.