Are We Products of Circumstance, or Choice?

In his book Freakonomics, economist Steven Levitt compares two boys.

One boy was white, from a Chicago suburb, and had “smart, solid, encouraging, loving parents who stressed education and family.”

The second boy was black, from Daytona Beach, and was abandoned by his mother, beaten by his father, and had become a full-fledged gangster by his teens.

The second child, now 27 years old, is Roland G. Fryer, Jr., a Harvard economist.

The white child also made it to Harvard. But soon after, things went badly for him. His name is Ted Kaczynski — the man we know as the Unabomber.

Although our circumstances definitely influence who we become, it is our choice that is the ultimate determinant.

Everyone can find reasons to not live up to their divine destiny, if that’s what they want to focus on.

But we only hold on to our pain because it gives us an excuse to not take responsibility; as long as I have someone or something to blame for my pain, I don’t have to look myself in the mirror.

Take responsibility for choosing your responses to circumstances, however painful they may be.

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.