I agree with your comment. We tend to see our own achievements as through our own efforts, failing to see any advantages we have, and further failing to see the

I agree with your comment. We tend to see our own achievements as through our own efforts, failing to see any advantages we have, and further failing to see the disadvantages many others have had. (OP has fixed typo, so below snark can be ignored: And English is a really weird language, on top of that. For example, "excepted" means almost the opposite of "accepted," but in most instances will be pronounced roughly the same way.)