Being Self-Made: Unpacking the 21st Centuries Biggest Falsehood
By: Arya Anthony Kamyab
Tags: Self Improvement, Compassion, Advice, Life Lessons, Philosophy

The U-Turn

In today’s society, there are few things that we hold in reverence more than a ‘Self-Made’ individual. Self-made entrepreneurs personify this so-called ‘American Dream’ and other dreams alike, as they fill up the social media feeds of the masses.

For years this concept of a ‘self-made individual’ has fascinated me. Had you given the task of discerning the factors behind success to my younger self, ‘Hard work’ and ‘The Grind’ would have been the first words that sprang to mind, and whilst I attributed a small part of success down to luck, there was no doubt that my teenage self fell prey to this pernicious notion that hard work makes up the bulk of success in this world.

So why the sudden U-turn? — Why is it that I believe the role of luck in the success of those at the top of society is so trivialised? — Let’s take a look…

“If you wish to converse with me, first define your terms” — Voltaire

As always, before we can unpack the question at hand, we need to define our terms.

The phrase ‘Self-made’ refers to an individual who has become successful or rich by one’s own efforts, actions, and decisions. By extension, the phrase is intertwined with a belief that there is little to no luck involved here. Even in those individuals who acknowledge that luck plays some form of role in success, this role is often underplayed as a feature not significant enough to capture the bandwidth of our attention.

A Renaissance Lebron James…

The year is 1484 and we find ourselves in the city-state of Florence — The epicentre of the cultural revitalisation that spread across Europe in a period that we call the Renaissance.

Word is getting about outside a local cloth factory that the native painter Sandro Botticelli is embarking on a new piece where he will paint the mythical goddess — Venus, being clothed in the flowers of the natural world — He will call this painting ‘the Birth of Venus’

What inspired Botticelli to paint such a thing? How long will it take to finish? Where can we see it? These were all questions that reverberated throughout Florence at the time.

If Lebron James had been born in such a time and place— ask yourself, would you have ever heard of the name Lebron James today?

The fact that Lebron James lives in a society that values and loves basketball is hardly his doing. They didn't care much for basketball in the Renaissance (in fact, it hadn’t even been invented). The way you made it to the top of society in the 15th century was through talent in the liberal arts. An individual rolling up cloth balls and shooting them into pottery vases from impressive distances may have caught the attention of the Florentine locals as they made their way to the local cathedral, but this individual’s name and talent would have been lost in history, obfuscated from view by the Renaissance heavyweights, like Botticelli and Michelangelo.

The fact Lebron James was brought into being at a time in history where society loves basketball is not his doing — it is a matter of contingency and good luck. It is consequently a grave mistake to look past this huge slice of luck when judging the exercise of his talents.

The Concert of our Environment and Genetics

Looking at the big picture, so much more than we are often led to believe can be ascribed to luck at the end — From your genes and all they do to determine the individual you grow up to be, all the way to the totality of your environmental experiences and all they do, in concert with your genes, to determine who you are.

Ask yourself these very simple questions, did anyone author their genetic makeup? Are we in control of the society into which we are born? Are we in control of the parents we were born to?

Going back to our previous example, it has to be an unassailable truth that Lebron James relied immensely on luck with regards to his physical attributes that allowed him to reach the pinnacle of success as a basketball player.

Take the physical trait of height. It is needless to say that as far as important attributes go in basketball, height is right up there. Molecular Biologist, Chao Qiang Lai put forward the figure that up to 80 percent of the differences in height between individuals are determined by genetic factors, the other 20 percent being attributable to environmental factors — of which nutrition seems to be the most pertinent.

Again ask yourself, how much does Lebron James have good fortune to thank with respect to his genetics and nutritional status? I hope we can converge on the notion that he had absolutely no authoring role with respect to his genetics and even if we examine the smaller role that environment plays on an individuals height — Was Lebron James in control of the fact that he was born into a society, at a specific time in history and to a family that had the means to acquire foods of high nutritional value? The answer has to be not a chance.

The advent of behavioural genetics over the last forty years has led to huge advancements in the role our DNA plays in determining who we are, but it is a field that still lies under the radar for most people intellectually. Take the following quote from Professor of behavioural genetics and psychology, Robert Plomin:

“Genetics, not lack of willpower, is the major reason why people differ in BMI. Success and failure, credit and blame, in overcoming problems should be calibrated relative to genetic strengths and weaknesses. ” — Professor Robert Plomin

The more we look through this lens of trying to depict evidence of good fortune all around us, the more we stumble across how rife luck truly is, in determining the merits we ascribe to those individuals at the top of society.

Now some resist this idea, seemingly at any intellectual cost. This single insight could be the antidote to the arrogance and contempt that seems to be present towards people in society who are less lucky than you are.

“No one made themselves — no one picked their parents, nobody picked their genetics, no one picked the environmental influences which sculpted their nervous system and has determined their every brain state up until this very moment, in concert with their genetics and so, if you are intelligent and are able to use your intelligence in a way that produces great wealth for yourself, well you got lucky. You won the intelligence lottery. If you have a great capacity for effort and the overcoming of frustration, well you won that lottery too” — Dr Sam Harris

Okay, So maybe luck plays a bigger role than I thought, Now what?

The reason why the dismissal and underplaying of luck is so dangerous is that those who land on top of this pile come to believe that their success is completely their own doing — a mere measure of their merit and of course, by extension, those individuals who fall short have no one to blame but themselves.

Attitudes towards success and failure, towards winning and losing become more hostile by the day and as mentioned earlier, the antidote is an appreciation of the roles that accident and good fortune play. We discussed humility in an earlier blog post concerning Socrates and his willingness to fill gaps in his knowledge and it seems we require humility again to open us towards a greater sense of responsibility for those struggling beneath us in society.

To the basketball and ‘self-made individual’ lovers I say this…

At the core of this blog post was one singular aim — to ensure that we no longer play down the role luck plays in society. Let me be as nuanced in my case as possible; my message was not an attempt to say the masses should no longer revere Lebron James — the fact that he has a genetic soup that made him more predisposed to become a brilliant basketball player and was brought about in a time where basketball is so loved is futile without the commitment to act upon that predisposition.

The wider effects of this notion will undoubtedly be discussed in years to come with regards to how we choose to shape our society, but for now, I ask you to look past what the Forbes magazines tell you and search for examples of chance events in your own life and the lives of those around you.