The Silver Spoon Connection: The Root Cause of Success and Failure in Life

(Downloaded from Warners Antique Silver — Google images)

It is the reality of life that some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Such people generally tend to portray their success in life as a product of sheer hard work. Of course, it is true that some people achieved fame and fortune by working very hard. William Shakespeare aptly summarized how people achieve success in the following words:

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”.

There are many books written on the subject of achieving success. For example, Robert Kiyosaki wrote the bestseller entitled ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’. Other popular books include ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill and ‘The 48 Laws of Power’ by Robert Greene. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson attempted to explain causes of success and failure among nations in their famous book entitled ‘Why Nations Fail: On the Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty’.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently released a document called ‘2019 Goalkeepers’ Report’. The title of the report is ‘Examining Inequality: How Geography and Gender Stack the Deck for (or Against) You’. In the introduction, Bill Gates and his wife had this to say:

“We were born in a wealthy country to white, well-off parents who lived in thriving communities and were able to send us to excellent schools”.

Causes of Success and Failure in Life

(2019 Goalkeepers’ Report — Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)

Bill Gates achieved greatness but he is humble and honest enough to acknowledge that part of his success was due to the ‘silver spoon connection’. Other billionaires like President Donald Trump will grudgingly acknowledge that, if at all. The issue of social connections conjures up secretive clubs of rich and powerful individuals. The Bohemian Club, the Bilderberg, the Freemasons and the Illuminati are some of the famous secretive societies patronized by the rich and powerful.

The issue of connections and gate-keeping extends to the world of work. Being the CEO of a blue-chip company has very little bearing with one’s qualifications and experience. It’s mostly to do with your social background — which school, college or university did you attend. Your friends and relatives play a very critical role in landing that coveted job.

India is a country which practices a caste system where members of society are stratified in rigid structures for generations after generations. If you are not part of the ‘silver spoon connection’, you are doomed for life. Cathy O’Nel wrote a fascinating book entitled ‘Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy’. In the book, O’Neil argues that the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as embodied in data science and artificial intelligence has some unsavory tendencies of perpetuating social and economic inequalities.

Universal social and economic equality will be an elusive dream for centuries to come. However, access to quality education, access to health care, and access to the internet may help to bring down the Gini coefficient among the people of this world. The Gini coefficient measures economic disparities among people in a given country. African countries, and South Africa in particular, have the highest economic inequalities in the world.

The article is also available on Medium at:
 https://t.co/XsKFOEMu37?amp=1