A Prescription for Humility

We all love the oft repeated trope of “work hard, play fair and you can achieve anything you want.” Especially in the Western world, this idea is ingrained in our psyche. This is reflected in phrases like “If you can dream it, you can do it”…..”Impossible is Nothing”….and so on and so forth.

Deep inside, we all try to convince ourselves that we can attribute the success and good things we enjoy, to our work ethic, our smarts and overall approach to life (hey look! I am a self-made man!) 

A large swath of the society is also convinced that those who are marginalized, have complete agency over their situation and that they can transform their downtrodden condition to a life more desirable, by just putting in more effort to better themselves.  

If you truly examine the mechanics of the order of things in this world, you will quickly realize that nothing could be further from the truth.  

Is hard work required for success? Absolutely! Does being intelligent help? Of course!  

However, this masks the sobering reality that, at this very moment there are millions who are working equally hard, are extremely smart and are doing all the right things and yet….never will get to enjoy a life that is generally deemed desirable.  

So what is the differentiating factor here? Well…all things being equal, what separates one from the other is….Luck! 

Your upbringing, the zip code you were born, the people you met along the way who helped, the school you graduated from, the lucky break you got, the family you were raised in, your health situation…all or some of these factors contribute to where we are (or aren’t’) today.  

Perhaps, right at this very moment, a young girl in Yemen, has the potential to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. If only, she had access to a piano at the age of 3! Instead, her life is withering away in starvation and destitute conditions inflicted on her due to the civil war. Perhaps, a young boy living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro has the scientific mind to invent a breakthrough cure for a disease. Oh if only he could be nurtured and trained in a good school! Instead, he lives in abject poverty and is forced into the streets to beg for food. Perhaps an amazing woman lives in a remote island in the South Pacific, who could’ve been a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. But all she knew growing up, was to toil away in the farmlands as a child.  

So much talent, so many ideas, so much potential…all on an express train to the grave, without ever being realized, only because they were born under the wrong conditions! 

If you dwell on this tragic reality, it may perhaps make you swell with unfettered sorrow. So does that mean you should feel guilty or undeserving of YOUR position in life? Absolutely NOT!  

However, this should be a prescription to live our lives with humility. A reminder, that no matter how hard we work, how smart we are, there are always elements that contribute to success that you don’t have any agency over. Things that can only be attributed to sheer LUCK! 

Let your light shine. Take full advantage of the position you are placed in, to design the best life for yourself. At the same, in the deep recesses of your heart, reserve a tiny spot for……………………………………….Humility!