The Role of Circumstance
"Reflect that nothing merits admiration except the spirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything." -Seneca
A compelling premise in Morgan Housel's The Psychology of Money is the randomness of wealth. Without discounting the importance of our own efforts when paired with the right circumstances, Housel manages to unravel preconceived notions around money with examples that demonstrate the consequential role played by one's placement in space and time.
Included amidst Housel's reveals is that of, at the time of his attendance, Bill Gates' high school being one of the only ones in the world that had a computer. As illuminated in both Housel's work and that of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, genius in itself doesn't lead to external thriving; it must intersect with opportunity.
Our specific lived realities are the result of a confluence of factors in and out of our control. Both our nemesis and benefactor, circumstance bears judging with an objective equanimity.
Awareness expands and strengthens when we recognize the simultaneous significance and insignificance of one's environment--the former in its invisible influence on who we become, the latter in its apathy toward us. The where and when of our births could have just as easily been true for anyone else, and thus in and of themselves do not merit praise. Praiseworthiness is then restricted to what we decide to do with what we have, in who we've decided to be, and how we've decided to be it.
Philosophy well employed is one that both recognizes circumstance and transcends it, not diminishing its part nor diminished by it.
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