I don't like the playing the lottery analogy. I get that your odds of joining the ranks of a mega-corp and climbing the ladder to one day become CEO are infinitesimal, but it's not dumb luck either. Unlike the lottery, many things are under your control, and if you have the proper drive and dedication you will quickly pull ahead of all the people who are there for an easy paycheck. When applied to startups, the assertion is downright offensive. At a startup the point is you take equity and you play a key role in the success of the company. There is luck involved as with anything in life, but chances are if you are en early employee, many parts of your success or failure can be traced back to specific actions that you personally decided and acted on. It's not easy and it's not always fair, but it's as close to a meritocracy as humanity has achieved so far.
Yes, but there are also a lot of things not under your control. You might be able to pull ahead quickly of the easy paycheck people, but then you're surrounded by other people with proper drive and dedication. To get ahead of them you need luck to have been given the right opportunity (in hindsight) that payed out, or to be liked more by those who promote you than your colleague, or to be the right sex (which is often irrelevant for the job), or be more beautiful (which often is irrelevant for the job), or being promoted just before the economic down turn and getting another turn when the economy comes up again, or having a family with some problems (like a sick child or spouse), and so on. A lot of these things will have unconscious effects on yourself, your colleagues, and the people that can promote you. It isn't a clear cut choice to perform well anymore to get ahead.
I tried to write my comment very precisely to prevent this type of counter response. You are not saying anything that is different from what I said.
My central thesis is simply that playing the lottery is foolish because it is completely luck and the odds are against you. Entering the corporate world as a means to success is a reasonable move for many to make. It's not about "perform[ing] well to get ahead", it's about how are you going to make your way in life. You could join a corporation and be a backstabbing prick and perform terribly and still get ahead, and maybe that was your calculation and it worked...
The thing that bugs me about the article is the attitude of throwing up of ones hand and succumbing to fate. There's a difference between acknowledging the chaos in the universe and simply being a loser tossed about by circumstance powerlessly.
If that's not a one true scotsman, I don't know what is. Life happens. No matter how hard you try to roll with the punches, sometimes you get hit, and it's foolish to say that you really didn't want to dodge the punch that knocked you out.
Agree with you 100%. There's a saying (watch out, here comes the cheese) and it goes something like "aim for the moon, even if you miss you will end up among the stars".
There's something about karma and hard work we have to believe in I think but also there are some countries (my impression is that America is especially guilty on this) where people are just too obsessed by what the neighbor has and being the number one etc..
At the end of the day people can work hard and aspire to great things, but remember to live, get by with what you have, stay positive, be happy and have fun!
