Who doesn't have some type of skill?
I actually wrote out a long reply but remembered Nietzsche put it perfectly already:
“Everyone possesses inborn talent, but few possess the degree of inborn and acquired toughness, endurance and energy actually to become a talent, that is to say to become what he is: which means to discharge it in works and actions.”
We all have talents of some type. What's lacking usually is determination. And fear of failure scares many too.
I agree that fear of failure stops many and that we are all born with some sort of predisposition towards a skill, but it strikes me as a bit egotistical to ignore that someone/something outside of your control is what helped develop that.
At the very least, consider that you could have been a stain on a gym sock instead of a person. The fact that either of us are here is a magnificent stroke of luck!
Oh of course. You can't discount the role luck plays in success. Not every opportunity plays out and the reasons they don't are usually outside your control.
What I don't like however is the opposite attitude to the arrogance you described. In the same way it's unfair to discredit that luck plays some role, it's equally unfair to attribute success to only luck.
