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How about this. Let me tell you about how I got to where I am to try to get you to understand where Obama was coming from.
I was born into an extreme impoverished environment. When we were kids, there were times when our parents told us to stay asleep because there weren't anything to eat that day.
When I grew up, I went to college and became a programmer. Not satisfied so I moved on to become a peace officer. A few years of that, figured out it wasn't for me either. So, I went back to grad school for engineering.
After I graduated, I worked at a number of places. I also applied my programming skills and created an engineering software for myself. Didn't think much of it. Showed it off to a couple of people I knew from the department of transportation. All of a sudden, I was approached by a headhunter offering me an engineering job with a huge pay increase that effectively put me in the 100Ks range. I am now a middle manager at a major engineering firm, one of the top dogs in the country and internationally.
What I later found out was one of the guys I showed off my software to knew someone in management of this firm. That's how they found me.
It wasn't easy to get to where I am. At the same time, I was incredibly lucky.
Suppose the paperwork my parents applied for us to legally immigrate to the US never panned out. Suppose I never accidentally meet the guy at the DOT at the conference I went to? Suppose the guy at the DOT didn't bring my name up to his friend at this company?
Yes, I worked extremely hard to get to where I am. And yes I was also incredibly lucky.
We should always be grateful for what we have and recognize things the way they are.
If Obama had said it was all luck, then you guys would have a point. But that's not what Obama said.
Originally Posted by petch751 View Post
LOL, that's not luck. You worked hard and you were prepared for opportunity. Do you think if you whined and did nothing you would have been presented and prepared to take advantage of the same opportunity?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA
Look at that - President Obama's point, clearly laid out.
Pasteur said it neatly: Chance only favors the prepared mind.
okkkkk? Did Obama say that? So why all the whining about "luck" from the left instead of encouraging people to "prepare for, take action, learn so they can take advantage of opportunities? Sitting on your laurels is not preparing, expecting government to pay your way is not preparing. It's expecting someone, or some outside force to do what is needed.
We are in a better position to recognize and seize the opportunity if we’ve logged some effort getting ready for it.
Ready for what, exactly? And this suggests another attitude that is very helpful if we are to make the best use of our time
Pretty much, yes. He acknowledged the hard work and asked the graduates to consider that luck had played a role as well.
I have no idea of who you're arguing with now.
So lets go with that.... unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. Lucky people generate good fortune via 5 basic principles.
- They prepare for the future
- They are skilled at creating and noticing opportunities,
- make decisions by listening to good intuition,
- create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations,
- adopt a resilient attitudes.
I noticed that people who "fail" always say, it's just my luck as if they expect failure, self-fulfilling prophesies via negative expectations.
And that means we have to not only question the world as it is, and stand up for those African Americans who haven’t been so lucky -- because, yes, you've worked hard, but you've also been lucky. That's a pet peeve of mine: People who have been successful and don’t realize they've been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn’t nothing you did. So don’t have an attitude. But we must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling -- the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender person, and yes, the middle-aged white guy who you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to get in his head, too.
".....it wasn’t nothing you did...You got to get in his head, too.
Obama is so lucky that he can get away with "talking ghetto."
Quote:
Originally Posted by TigerLily24
No, the President knows he was lucky, is thankful for the blessings bestowed upon him and believes that anyone who achieves similar success should have the good grace to recognize same.
Why?
Not everyone who achieves success does so because of luck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skepticratic
What Obama was saying was to be thankful for opportunity. Work hard and be proud of your work but also recognize that not everyone is afforded the same opportunity as you.
Again, not all people who are successful had opportunities handed to them on a silver platter.
Many if not most were average people who worked their butts off.
And some succeeded in spite of the cards being stacked against them.
Obama always had the cards stacked IN FAVOR of him, so he doesn't understand that.
**********************************
Our first AFFIRMATIVE ACTION president -- with the second (Hillary) waiting in the wings....
Why does Obama constantly make it about race and then complain it's about race?
That's his shtick. It got him elected.
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