Vegosiux said:
Lightknight said:
A current average unemployment rate of less than 8%? Out of every 100 people in the labor market, more than 92 of them are currently employed. Perfect unemployment would be something like 4-5% so we're not that far off.
At about 12% here, or pretty much half again as where you are. Check the youth unemployment in Greece, it's in the 60% range. This is one way luck factors in, simply depending on where you've been born.
I stand corrected. There is certainly luck in where you're born and what you have to start out with. I'll mention the fact that I am certainly not from money. However, I did have role models for parents who worked their asses off to get what we had. That stuck with me. And money or not, I was certainly born in America, a land that definitely has opportunities. But America certainly isn't without its own areas of poverty and failure. They're just typically better off than other countries' poverty and failure.
All that hard work guarantees is giving you a better shot. Which is a lot more than nothing, but a better shot at a "reward" still does not mean the reward is guaranteed.
Note that I said if you don't work hard you're the first to go. I did not say that you won't go anywhere at all just because you work hard. What's more, I've never worked harder in my life than when I was in the food industry or later when I worked as a professional blacksmith/metal worker. So hard work also doesn't necessarily mean commensurate pay. The only reason why I make a decent salary now is that it's more difficult to replace a highly technical asset than it is to replace a manual laborer.
That's what I'm doing too, yes. But I cannot improve the country's economy to the point where it would get out of the recession on my own. I can vote for people I hope are capable of fixing the mess, but that's the extent of my power, but until this mess is sorted, I can't hope for a major breakthrough here.
And, for example, moving to another country to make living there would be a huge expense, an expense I cannot currently afford. Added to that, in the current economic climate most countries aren't too fond of employing foreigners en masse; I still have a better shot than many, being a EU citizen, but that's again not something I can count as something I achieved.
It also depends heavily on your skill. If it's something that translates easily then doors can be opened for you that wouldn't be else-wise.
Your company having such a test is an "outside force". Had their screening been different, so might have been the outcome.
That's what I mean when I say "luck". I don't mean the "won the lottery" kind of luck, but things like this, things that are hardly even noticed. Where you live, who you know, which day you decided to check the papers, what kind of screening you ran into...these little things really do add up. I see it every day, people who are worse off than I am, who desperately need jobs, with literally a hundred times as many registered unemployed people as there are job openings available. What am I supposed to tell them? That they should just try harder?
A few of my classes for business taught me that people can look at the same situation and attribute it to different forces. The concept I'm referring to in particular is the Locus of Control [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control]. It appears that we merely have different perspectives. There are four possible combinations:
a. Internal Locus of Control without control over the situation: Ability (you were born smart and capable to succeed or you were not born smart enough or capable enough to succeed)
b. Internal Locus of Control with control over the situation: Effort (if you succeed, it's because you practiced, if you fail, you didn't try hard enough)
c. External Locus of Control without control over the situation: Luck/Chance (self explanatory)
d. External Locus of Control without control over the situation: Task Difficulty (you failed the test because the questions were too hard, you passed the test because the questions were too easy)
As such, according to the Locus of Control personality theory. I generally (it can change for some situations) have a Internal locus of control with a general belief of control over the situation. When I fail, it is because I have not worked hard enough or did not know enough. It is motivation to better myself. If I succeed, that too is on my shoulders. Were I to accept some floating concept of luck as the deciding factor in my path, I would be significantly less motivated. I cannot be so fatalistic. I can occasionally go into the realm of ability. The aptitude test caught me entirely off guard. I had no idea what they wanted and so I could only take it as myself. So I have to attribute it to ability whereas most tests and tasks I'd attribute to effort.
However, I don't know that either of our positions are necessarily right. In fact, I'd imagine reality to be a combination of any and all of those factors. Highly situational. I have always been aware that I remember topics and concepts far better than my peers. I have difficulty attributing that to natural ability yet I do not know how I could have worked to acquire it besides being an active reader early on and replaying shows in my head as a child while trying to sleep. From start to finish, scene by scene. But perhaps even the ability to do that was inherited as well.
In any event, each of those Locus of Controls have pluses and negatives.
EDIT: I believe that might have come across as a bit too confrontational. Apologies, it's just that it really bugs me. But, one thing I will agree on - if you work hard and go above and beyond the call of duty even for free, that makes it a lot more certain that you get to keep a job and advance your career. But it's the first step that's a doozy.
Agreed, especially on the doozy bit. Forgive me if I've come across as combative or dismissive as well. I appreciate your input.
Read the first few pages of the first book, I like it, sucked me in rather nicely. 
