Winning traits

I’ve been ruminating on this for a while. While being born into a rich family is considered as one the greatest privilege that a man could have, I think the real privilege is about having a certain innate trait and personal value that allows one to excel in life.

You can be born into a family living in a slump, but if you’re born as someone whose naturally driven, you have more chance to win in life.

Psyche is a complex thing to describe and quantify. But I’m talking about how those who might be born to be well-liked by society’s standard might have an easier life than those who do not possess those traits. And that’s the whole idea of a privilege. It gives people a jump start to win in life.

I’m not even talking about natural talent or someone’s intelligent. I’m talking about the way you think, how you deal with obstacles in life, how you bond with other people, and most importantly, what value that you believe.

One thing that sparked this realization was hearing numerous ‘zero to one’ stories from different people. While many of them come from non-privileged or even poor backgrounds, I can also see that most of them share common qualities like being someone who’s driven, know how to seize an opportunity, well-liked by their peers, and good at networking.

Now, one can argue that those traits can be learned. But that’s exactly what I’m talking about. There are people out there who possess those quality since they were born.

And as a parent, looking at how energetic, strong-willed, and generally fearless my son is, I feel so much relieve. I realize, once he’s born, the only thing that I can control is how I nurture him.

I hate to come back to this debate around nature vs nurture. Because I believe that both are equally important. However, we can do very little to influence “nature”. And that’s why, winning in that aspect, can get you far.