I came here to say that, but you said it better than I might have.
I would like to add that his/her post reeked of rationalization fueled by insecurity.
In real life, there are sometimes reasons we fail that are beyond our control. There are always excuses for failure that have some truth in them. There are always ways that we can look at the successful as lucky SOBs and the unsuccessful as victims of cruel fate.
While it's interesting to contemplate the roles of skill and luck in success on a Sunday afternoon -- I've never met a really successful person who didn't have a positive outlook on her ability to mold her opportunities, to watch for chances to make a move, and to sieze those moments that were right and ride them to success.
To glorify happenstance (the particular school you can afford to go to) and self-victimhood is a self-fulfilling prophecy and guaranteed way to minimize your own chances of ever being successful at anything.
Are we our knowledge and experiences? Are we our genetic potential? Are we our upbringing? Are we just products of random chance and our environment? The more I learn in life, the more I become convinced that we are our ATTITUDE. Attitude is the prime factor in success or failure. It is the leading indicator to me when I go to hire someone or decide whether or not I want to work with him.
I don't care what school you went to -- if success is your goal, then start with attitude. Adopt one that drives you to focus on yourself and your own improvement every day of your life. Good things will follow.
Attitude itself though is something that is molded by life experiences. It's very easy to say "Just adopt a positive attitude!" but this is something that is difficult to really do when you perceive the penalty of failure to be high and the odds of success to be low.
As an example of this, in the UK they have tried to combat unemployment by sending people on courses where they try to re-enforce a "you can do anything you want if you try hard enough" philosophy. This seems disingenuous however since you have to think about the person giving the message and ask whether their life ambition was really trying to herd unemployed people.
It's very easy to say "Just adopt a positive attitude!" but this is something that is difficult to really do when you perceive the penalty of failure to be high and the odds of success to be low.
I never said it was easy. It's very difficult, partly because it's hard to accomplish, partly because it's esoteric and hard to even understand for many people. If you have a bad attitude, then it's hard to appreciate the importance of even trying to have a good attitude.
This seems disingenuous however since you have to think about the person giving the message and ask whether their life ambition was really trying to herd unemployed people.
That kind of cynicism is a trap that keeps people from breaking free of their own attitude-based limitations. Maybe the message givers just want to help people and they're performing an extraordinarily important service? Maybe the job they're doing is just a step along the way to other ambitions and heights in their careers?
It's good to focus on what you can do. But that doesn't mean that your life circumstances aren't largely determined by factors beyond your control. That just boils down to social darwinism - anyone who is doing well obviously just worked harder. This just isn't true.
If you are sailing in high winds, all you can do is try to compensate for them. Sinking isn't an option. But neither is it an option to pretend that there aren't any winds applying to you. Only people who have no experience of winds will assume that people are only at risk because they are grossly negligent or lazy or stupid.
Huh. Impressive how much of my personality comes across that way. You're right, on pretty much everything. I am insecure, though I've never understood the difference between rationalization and circumstance. When you're betting more or less your future on you being excellent in your given field, that can really do a number on your self confidence.
Nevertheless, I appreciate the critique. Besides the list of projects I'm working on and my job, any advice for how to improve?
Rationalization = excusing your lack of success based on factors beyond your control, circumstance = accepting the factors beyond your control and playing the hell out of the factors that are in your control.
It's too bad that Marc Andreesen took his career advice blog post off the Internet, because he had some of the best advice I've seen. It was:
1. Build skills & relationships.
2. Take advantage of opportunities
Basically, all of the big leaps in your career will happen because some random big opportunity outside of your control will open up. When it does, jump on it. Immediately. Drop everything you're doing for it. Most people don't, and that is why most people slave away their lives in cubicles.
But to seize that opportunity, you need to be qualified, and you need to hear about it. So all the time that you're not actively seizing an opportunity, you should be building your skill base and getting to know other people. That's the important part: opportunities happen to everybody, but the vast majority of people aren't in a position to take advantage of them.
> I've never understood the difference between rationalization and circumstance.
Let's start there. Circumstance is a fact, rationalization is a story you tell yourself. Of course there is all types of rationalization and all types of stories. In this case though, your circumstance and your personal narrative are combining with a pessimistic quality. Pessimism is not always bad, it may be a good hedge against disappointment.
In this case you are taking it too far though. You could just as easily be telling yourself a positive story about your ability to execute on side projects while holding down a day job, or the fact that you are young and have low expenses, or that you are fortunate enough to be passionate about one of the few careers that's not shrinking these days, or even the fact that you won the birth lottery. It actually doesn't matter what you tell yourself though, as long as it helps maximize your potential. You could be the richest white kid in Beverly Hills or the poorest peasant in China, your attitude is the greatest thing you can control that can affect your circumstance. That doesn't mean the rich kid has much chance of being a billionaire or the peasant can reasonably hope to make $50k/year, but within their respective circumstances, attitude and action can make a world of difference.
I would like to add that his/her post reeked of rationalization fueled by insecurity.
In real life, there are sometimes reasons we fail that are beyond our control. There are always excuses for failure that have some truth in them. There are always ways that we can look at the successful as lucky SOBs and the unsuccessful as victims of cruel fate.
While it's interesting to contemplate the roles of skill and luck in success on a Sunday afternoon -- I've never met a really successful person who didn't have a positive outlook on her ability to mold her opportunities, to watch for chances to make a move, and to sieze those moments that were right and ride them to success.
To glorify happenstance (the particular school you can afford to go to) and self-victimhood is a self-fulfilling prophecy and guaranteed way to minimize your own chances of ever being successful at anything.
Are we our knowledge and experiences? Are we our genetic potential? Are we our upbringing? Are we just products of random chance and our environment? The more I learn in life, the more I become convinced that we are our ATTITUDE. Attitude is the prime factor in success or failure. It is the leading indicator to me when I go to hire someone or decide whether or not I want to work with him.
I don't care what school you went to -- if success is your goal, then start with attitude. Adopt one that drives you to focus on yourself and your own improvement every day of your life. Good things will follow.