Last week, I shared a post on how intention, effort and luck combine to create successful projects. I realize now that I missed something important – privilege.
Privilege accumulated over the years determines the opportunities that are open to us. Once you are born into a family with means or are born in a place with lots of opportunity or are fortunate to get a good education or work experience at a top tier firm or two, you see opportunities that others never will. Privilege also shapes our intention, effort and the component of luck whose probability increases with thoughtful preparation.
This is easy to ignore and forget because you take this sort of privilege for granted.
I clearly did when I wrote about what makes projects successful last week. My updated sketch would look like the one below with privilege being the platform on which most success is built.
With privilege should come humility and responsibility. And, a first step to both is being aware of the presence of privilege in the first place.
A Learning a Day 