<story><title>”Be Useful”</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2023/10/06/1203694351/arnold-schwarzenegger-has-one-main-guiding-principle-be-useful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chmod600</author><text>Both concepts can be true. A lot of people, especially in the developed world, have way more opportunities than they realize. Those that take on some (often very modest) risk to exercise those opportunities are self-made.&lt;p&gt;It would be ridiculous to say that Picasso didn&amp;#x27;t make a painting because someone else supplied the paint. He&amp;#x27;s the one that saw the paint and the canvas and put them together in a unique way.</text></item><item><author>padolsey</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;I hate when someone says, &amp;quot;Oh, Schwarzenegger is the perfect example of a self-made man&amp;quot; because I&amp;#x27;m not. I&amp;#x27;m a creation of my parents. I&amp;#x27;m a creation of my coaches, my teachers. I have been helped by my training partners, by my friends. Especially when I think about coming to America, it was Joe Wheeler that helped me to come over here, got me the airline ticket, helped me get the apartment and the car. The people of California voted for me to be governor of California. So I didn&amp;#x27;t become governor because I&amp;#x27;m self-made; I became governor because people voted for me.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I love this humility and wish more people would have it. Even if you weren&amp;#x27;t supported by individuals, it is due to the society around you, its infrastructure, its structure, its technology, that you are able to be a &amp;quot;success&amp;quot;. We are the product of things we had no control over initially. Yet people still say &amp;quot;self made&amp;quot; ¯\_(ツ)_&amp;#x2F;¯</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>johnny99k</author><text>Because what you are describing is literally what happens in all situations for everything, it shouldn&amp;#x27;t even factor into success.  It&amp;#x27;s a given that to be successful, there are external entities involved (infrastructure, people).&lt;p&gt;I suppose if you get a PHD, you should be thanking the factory worker that was responsible for the paper in your diploma.  Should you also thank Bill Gates for providing the operating system and software that allowed you to write your thesis?&lt;p&gt;Instead, it&amp;#x27;s being used as a tactic to cut down anyone that is successful (you didn&amp;#x27;t earn that success, it was the people around you).&lt;p&gt;If success were that easy, everyone would be successful..but this just isn&amp;#x27;t reality.</text></comment>
<story><title>”Be Useful”</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2023/10/06/1203694351/arnold-schwarzenegger-has-one-main-guiding-principle-be-useful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chmod600</author><text>Both concepts can be true. A lot of people, especially in the developed world, have way more opportunities than they realize. Those that take on some (often very modest) risk to exercise those opportunities are self-made.&lt;p&gt;It would be ridiculous to say that Picasso didn&amp;#x27;t make a painting because someone else supplied the paint. He&amp;#x27;s the one that saw the paint and the canvas and put them together in a unique way.</text></item><item><author>padolsey</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;I hate when someone says, &amp;quot;Oh, Schwarzenegger is the perfect example of a self-made man&amp;quot; because I&amp;#x27;m not. I&amp;#x27;m a creation of my parents. I&amp;#x27;m a creation of my coaches, my teachers. I have been helped by my training partners, by my friends. Especially when I think about coming to America, it was Joe Wheeler that helped me to come over here, got me the airline ticket, helped me get the apartment and the car. The people of California voted for me to be governor of California. So I didn&amp;#x27;t become governor because I&amp;#x27;m self-made; I became governor because people voted for me.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I love this humility and wish more people would have it. Even if you weren&amp;#x27;t supported by individuals, it is due to the society around you, its infrastructure, its structure, its technology, that you are able to be a &amp;quot;success&amp;quot;. We are the product of things we had no control over initially. Yet people still say &amp;quot;self made&amp;quot; ¯\_(ツ)_&amp;#x2F;¯</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>0xcde4c3db</author><text>Picasso was the son of an accomplished painter and art professor, who tutored him from a young age. That&amp;#x27;s not the sort of opportunity that&amp;#x27;s all around average people.</text></comment>