Dien,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, my friend, you got it absolutely right, -
I DO maintain that the logic of success is circular, a big Catch-22.

And I do maintain that this is not a matter of opinion (yours or mine) - it's a matter of FACTS.

Once again - you CAN'T turn nothing into something. You have to BE a success in any shape or form in order to ACHIEVE success in another form...

If this 'being somebody' sounds foreign, consider another form - you have to KNOW somebody to achieve something.

Yes, I do fully subscribe to the brilliant analysis of Michael Ross and Boyd Stone.

Yes, I think that the Silver Spoon debunking of success myths is THE most significant contribution to this board and to the 'theory' of success in general.
(you can easily find Michael's and Boyd's posts by searching the archives for 'silver spoon')...

The theory of success that doesn't take into account the Silver Spoon factor is a LIE, self-imposed illusion and the way to delude others.

It's exactly like your beloved Quantum Mechanics - you can't get rid of the fundamentally IRRATIONAL character of success phenomenon...

Your mother, happening to know the president of IBM.
Your son BEING a genius.
Your uncle 'happening' to have a million dollars to invest in your company.
....................

And please, don't tell me that Feynman was a 'nobody' at some distant point in time.
We both know that Feynman NEVER was a nobody.
Call it 'genes', call it 'destiny', call it 'grace', call it 'silver spoon'.

We may try to turn away from reality of this 'circular logic' all our lives - but without the factor of LUCK, GRACE... whatever.. any success-considerations are myths and delusions...

And this 'luck', 'being somebody', 'knowing somebody', 'bumping into something' is NOT something secondary and peripheral - it's basic, the factor everything starts from...

Simon