Circumstances and luck dictate our lifes far more than hard work and smart decisions

Some time ago I had some setbacks in life and I reflected upon it very thouroughly. For the past 5 years or so I did a great many thinking about the paths I have taken, about the mistakes I made and about how I could have avoided them.

And I came to the conclusion that I could not have really made any major changes without having the knowledge I posses now. That my live and its paths were a direct logical results of my circumstances.

As a kid you are greatly influenced by your parents and your surroundings. If you have a parent that is greatly interested in Music and the house if full of musical instruments and books about music, chances are that you will take an interest into Music as well and not suddenly out of the blue develop an interest into Rocket Science.

When moving into a dorm it has been shown that around 2/3 of all friendships that develop, develop towards the people in the same apartment complex. Of the people living on the same floor 2/3 of all friendships develop between people no further than 2 doors away.

There is free will, but geography, physical barriers, influences, avaliable Resources etc. make our paths pretty much predetermined. Its like in Mass Effect where the Reapers steer the development of the people of the Galaxy:

"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire".

If you have the choice to get 100 Dollars for free or get a sunburn, close to 100% of all people will choose the 100 Dollars. And even if you have 10 000 such choices in your life. Its just logical that you will take the good/logical one 10 000 in a row.

Rich and Lucky people like to deny that luck and circumstances exist and for them its all down to "hard work and smart decisions". But this is total bs.Circumstances, avaliable money/resources and luck dictate your path to a much larger degree than people want to admit.