In a couple of blog-related email exchanges recently, I found myself referring to this post from many years ago. The graph still says it better than words can.
It is always amusing to see the gap between actual drivers of extrinsic success / wealth and attributed drivers. We have a need to believe in romantic stories of hard work and heroic mindset and are painted these pictures in the stories we are told.
In reality, however, the biggest driver of extrinsic success / wealth is privilege by a long shot. Luck and mindset matter – but, privilege is the platform on which it is built.
Acknowledging the real drivers is the first step to building systems that provide better access to opportunity to those who don’t have it.
In a couple of email exchanges recently, I found myself pointing back to this post from 2018. The graph still says it better than words can.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize privilege is best understood as what you don’t have to think about.
A thought experiment: what are the odds that a kid born in a suburban neighborhood in New York to parents working at multinational companies will be financially independent by 40? Now compare those odds to a kid born in the ghetto, or the slums of Mumbai, or even the lower middle class of a city in Africa.
We love the outlier stories — the kid who made it against all odds. And yes, there are always exceptions that prove the rule. But that’s exactly what they are: exceptions.
That’s why it starts at birth — who you’re born to and where. That combination determines the initial height of “the platform” you have. And privilege compounds from there. Every advantage makes the next one more accessible. A few years in, it becomes nearly impossible to look back objectively.
So, for every bit of privilege present, there is an equal and opposing internal force that refuses to acknowledge it. The more you have it, the harder it becomes to see.
One of the clearest markers of accumulated privilege is the ability to think long term. Security — mental and financial — is what makes long-term thinking possible. And long-term thinking, in turn, compounds into more privilege.
In the final analysis, it’s just easy to talk about hard work and mindset when you don’t have to worry about the rest.
A Learning a Day 