I see these types of articles way more than I hear fellow millenials discussing being 'self-made'. It seems almost trendy these days to try to point out all the

I see these types of articles way more than I hear fellow millenials discussing being 'self-made'. It seems almost trendy these days to try to point out all the ways that successful people just got lucky or substantial assistance. It seems highly related to this trendy idea that all people are fundamentally equal in all forms of capability, except maybe where poor diet hindered education or something. Individuals vary tremendously, and that's all luck too. Nature+Nurture. Everyone gets something from their parents: Personality is 40-60% heritable* IQ is 50-80% heritable So around half of who you are comes from who your parents are. The rest is luck. Even before you're born. My point is that every single person is basically 100% a combination of inheritance and luck. Maybe that inheritance is good genes, good parenting and money or maybe it isn't. Maybe in that context, a 15k loan isn't that big a deal. Maybe it is. Either way, it's counter productive to pick out a single aspect or two of a person and dismantle their success because they had THAT particular advantage. * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068715/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068715/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ