I do want to stress that I didn't suggest any major cash transfer above -- for one reason, most 30-40-something "million dollar" couples probably haven't had th

I do want to stress that I didn't suggest any major cash transfer above -- for one reason, most 30-40-something "million dollar" couples probably haven't had their 20-30 year-older parents pass away and leave them any "inheritance" yet, if any is coming. What I said was: get a job at dad's business. Some similar situational advantages: buy parent's not-a-lemon old car at a sweetheart rate, get a little help with tuition, live for a few years low rent or no rent with family, get a job at a friend of the family's business, get a referral from a connected family member or friend of the family, grow up in a neighborhood with lots of green space, play sports and hang out with kids whose parents are comparatively rich, be white and have had orthodontics and health care for your childhood, have the time and energy to do extracurriculars as a teenager, have a decent school music program, or a good local library, take time to do a "travel year", have the security to know if you fail at a business, you can 'just move home', etc. The point here is, the list of "legs up" some people get that they don't necessarily recognize, let alone control, is very, very long, and every one of these is a mild additive push toward relative life success. Having an internal locus of control is certainly beneficial in dealing with the things life throws at you and in seizing opportunities, but I contend that one's surface area of luck is not made up solely or even mostly by attitude. I didn't even list any of the negative things that might totally derail an otherwise focused, high potential kid above, and that list is probably much longer.