At a crusade rally in Roanoke, Va., before the 2012 decision, President Barack Obama opined: "On the off chance that you were fruitful, some person along the line gave you some assistance. There was an extraordinary instructor some place in your life.... Some person put resources into streets and extensions. In the event that you have a business—you didn't fabricate that. Another person got that going."
Although Obama was making a larger point about the power of collective action, such as building dams, power grids and the Internet, conservative heads exploded at the final sentiment. “I did build that!” is an understandable rejoinder to which I can relate. I research my books, edit my magazine, teach my courses and write these columns (this one is my 200th in a row for Scientific American). If I don't make them happen, nobody else will. But then I started thinking as a social scientist on the role of circumstance and luck in how lives turn out. It's a sobering experience to realize just how many variables are out of our control:
1.The fortunes of being conceived in any case—the proportion of what number of individuals could have been destined to the individuals who really were—is endlessly vast, also the fortunes of being conceived in a Western nation with a stable political framework, a sound economy and a strong foundation (streets and extensions) as opposed to, say, in a lower rank in India, or in war-torn Syria, or anarchic Somalia.
2.The luck of having loving and nurturing parents who raised you in a safe neighborhood and healthy environment, provided you with a high-quality K–12 education and instilled in you the values of personal responsibility. If they were financially successful, that's an added bonus because a key predictor of someone's earning power is that of their parents.
3.The luck of attending a college where you happened on good or inspiring professors or mentors who guided you to your calling, along with a strong peer cohort to challenge and support you, followed by finding a good-paying job or fulfilling career that matches your education, talents and interests.
4.The luck of being born at a time in history when your particular aptitudes and passions fit that of the zeitgeist. Would Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin be among the richest and most successful people in the world had they been born in 1873 instead of 1973? Both are brilliant and hardworking, so they would probably have been successful in any century—but at the equivalent of nearly $45 billion each? It seems unlikely.
Shouldn't something be said about knowledge and diligent work? Definitely they matter as much as luckiness. Truly, yet many years of information from conduct hereditary qualities reveal to us that at any rate half of knowledge is heritable, as is having an identity high in receptiveness to understanding, reliability and the requirement for accomplishment—all factors that assistance to shape achievement. The nongenetic segments of inclination, care and desire matter, as well, obviously, however the majority of those natural and social factors were given by others or conditions not of your making. In the event that you get up toward the beginning of the day brimming with vim and power, bouncing out the entryway and into the world to take your shot, you didn't be that way. At that point there is the issue of übersmart, innovative, dedicated individuals who never succeed, so clearly there are extra factors that decide life results, for example, misfortune ... what's more, terrible decisions.
Volition, too, must be considered in any evaluation of life outcomes, in the sense of knowing your strengths and weaknesses and selecting paths more likely to result in the desired effect. You can become aware of the internal and external influencing variables on your life—and aware of how you respond to them—and then make adjustments accordingly, however restrictive the degrees of freedom may be.
If the cosmic dice rolled in your favor, how should you feel? Modest pride in one's hard work is no vice, but boastful arrogance at one's good fortune is no virtue, so you should cultivate gratitude. What if you've been unlucky in life? There should be consolation in the fact that studies show that what is important in the long run is not success so much as living a meaningful life. And that is the result of having family and friends, setting long-range goals, meeting challenges with courage and conviction, and being true to yourself.