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Limiting yourself to people who grew up at about the same time and in a similar place as you and who experienced about the same social, educational, and economic circumstances as you, let’s revisit the five questions.
• Do you know people from your childhood reference group, people like you who are better than others at getting people to do what they want them to do?
• Do you know people like you for whom things consistently turn out better than they do for others?
• Do you know people like you who seldom end up with the short end of the stick while others frequently come up short?
• Do you know people like you who consistently follow through with whatever they undertake while others often falter or end up just quitting?
• Do you know people like you who’s influence bubble expands over time, while for others, their influence bubbles stay small or may even contract over time?
I have gone to some length to eliminate excuses and rationalizations. We all know people like us who have done better than we have relative to one or more of the five questions. Of course each of us was disadvantaged relative to some people not in our childhood reference group and advantaged relative to others. Some of us had a significant boost up from day one while others of us experienced a significant push down. The issue is not so much how well we have done compared to everyone else but rather how well we have done relative to people like us.