Life is unfair. Some people start with everything and some people start with nothing. We’re born of circumstances that we cannot control. We do not decide our parents, our birthplace, our birthday, or our name. We’re given a hand, and we’re forced to play it. It’s an undeniable fact that people have different privileges. Some people are beautiful, some people are geniuses, some people are tall, and some people have it all. It’s like they were given pocket aces while you were given a two and a three. It’s easy to look at them with disdain and envy. After all, much of their life is due to luck and not hard work.
However, society still smiles upon those with privilege. We put beautiful people in magazines, we give awards to geniuses, and we admire those of high social status. This widens the divide between the fortunate and the dispossessed. It would be so easy to retaliate against those with lady luck on their side. After all, they didn’t do anything to earn what they have. Let’s start a people’s revolution!
Oh, wait. It’s not so simple. As lucky as some people are, they didn’t choose to be lucky. If we shouldn’t be criticized for factors out of our control, that same principle applies to the fortunate. Equality is good, right? We don’t even have to look at it from the equality perspective. What would hating on the fortunate do for you? Wiping out the fortunate is not going to improve your situation. We’ll have fewer talented people, no savants, no inventors, no models, no tall people, and no wealthy people. Hating those with more privileges than you won’t improve your situation. It will make you bitter, resentful, and ungrateful. You’re not going to get your dream job by hating the math whiz next door. You’re not going to get into Harvard by complaining about how much better everyone else has it. You’re responsible for your life’s trajectory. Even if you were dealt a bad hand, you have to play it. You have to push for something. That’s the only way your situation will improve, and that’s the only way you can make something of yourself. Forget about others because only you can control your own outcome. And you should act immediately. There’s no folding. You only have one round.
Playing your pocket twos like they’re pocket aces can even win you the round. The billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates aren’t the smartest people in the world. They took risks and played the game. They knew their strengths and they had a strategy. Look where they are now. There are people who live on minimum wage that will live happier lives than some millionaire. They understand their cards and can find more happiness and virtue in their lives than the millionaire can, even if they don’t have five Bentleys or a dozen Louis Vuitton handbags. Your fate is in your own hands. I know you’re probably wondering: some people’s hands are so bad that they couldn’t possibly be happy. First of all, that’s probably not you. But, even if it is, let me tell you a story. There was this woman who had almost nothing going for her. She was extremely unattractive, unintelligent, and dirt poor. Her parents were gone, she had no friends, and she lived alone. But, she told her therapist that she enjoyed volunteering at the psych ward because she was able to help those with situations she deemed even worse than hers. Try to imagine a worse situation than hers. But somehow, she can see that there are people even worse off that she can help. What’s your excuse?
I’ve thrown around the terms “privileged”, “fortunate”, and “lucky” many times throughout this piece. But, what do they even mean? How can you even know how most people compare to you? Everyone deals with different burdens. At a surface glance, you think you’ve figured out those around you. Jim has rich parents, so he has everything. Ashley is super hot and probably gets a free ride through life. The surface manifestations of privilege can be a façade. You never know what internal struggles they have. Maybe Jim’s parents neglect him. Maybe Ashley is failing all of her classes. You will never be sure. So what’s the point of labeling them more fortunate than you are? You probably have things they don’t. You should learn to appreciate what you have and what you’ve been given. But again, even if they are more fortunate than you in every way, hating them won’t make your life any less miserable. Play your hand. You won’t win anything if you don’t try.