The "anything is possible" brigade

[Arkarians]

Anything is possible with enough hard work! Does anyone else find this phrase annoying as fuck?

You can become a billionaire like Elon Musk apparently, if you just simply work as hard as him.

Anyones child can excel in school, get top marks on all of their GCSEs and get into Oxbridge, if they bothered to work hard enough.

Anyone can achieve a high-flying career as a lawyer or doctor, if they just work hard enough.

The implication is that people who aren't massively successful lawyers, doctors, business owners, CEOs, etc are lazy fucks who couldn't be bothered to put the effort in? Not to mention how your background and/or current circumstances are a massive factor in success too.

Surely it doesn't matter how 'hard' you work, you could work 12 hours a day until the day you die and still never achieve Elon Musk level success. If you don't have the creativity, the right ideas, the luck and all the physical capacities for it, it will never happen.

Is there something Un-PC about acknowledging that people have different abilities, circumstances, levels of intelligence, etc, and not everyone is built for huge success?

HNRTT but the hardest working people I know aren't rich. Musk isn't wealthy through hard work nor is he the engineering genius some fanbois think. The narrative of 'achieve anything through hard work' is deliberately to encourage those struggling to believe the fault is entirely theirs so they should blame themselves rather than a system. Some disadvantaged people ca be successful much like some people can smoke 60 a day from 13 until the age of 98 without apparent ill-effect but mistaking cause, effect and irrelevance is dangerous so don't think if you want to live to 98 you should start smoking from the age of 13.

Post-2010 government decisions have led to a c25%? real terms pay cut to some groups of workers while the richest 1% gained c£2.5tn. That didn't happen by accident or through hard work by the richest 1% but if you think it did, I'd love a chat as I have a bridge across the Thames/skyscraper/digital asset/NFT to sell that will almost certainly make you rich. You deserve to be rich because of how hard you work.

Yeah, it's bollocks. Opportunity and luck are huge factors.

And by the way, as any disability activist will tell you, in order for people with disabilities to have a better chance in life (right now having a disability reduces your life chances dramatically) what they need is more support in the workplace and society, rather than be applauded because a few of them ‘run with no feet’.

Amen.

Odd you don't seem to understand there are just thick people in the world

Those 'thick' people may have learning disabilities. DH was written off as 'thick'. He was later diagnosed with quite severe dyslexia and dyspraxia.

I hear you. With the level of intelligence, motivation, drive I have, no, only certain things are possible. Maybe that's ok with me, I'd like to do a little better though yes. Haven't given up. But I remember when I was up to my eyes in responsibility, two toddlers, all of the sacrifices were mine, x had all of the freedom and yet I was getting messages that if I just tried HARDER I could somehow fiddle around with the equation of Earning Potential / childcare for two + running a household and get a different answer from = Minus a couple of hundred............

I let it deplete me further. I shouldn't have. I know that now.

Luckily I don’t have the money to pay the career coach.

I’ve done the working up bit, but when you get to the limited top, what do you do then? I had the big job pre children, but had to leave as it wasn’t compatible with children. When I say where my talents lie, I mean things like, I can’t be an accountant. I’ve been pushed as it was the natural progression from my job, but I’m shit at it and my strengths lie elsewhere. I don’t mean talent as in lemon drizzle cakes.

It’s also having the mind set to recognise the opportunities and grab them.

I’ve missed a few, dh missed a few. With hindsight we should have grabbed them.

The implication is that people who aren't massively successful lawyers, doctors, business owners, CEOs, etc are lazy fucks who couldn't be bothered to put the effort in?

OK but what if people admit to the fact "I couldn't be arsed" - and there are plenty of people who openly admit on here that they are fine with a mundane "dead end job" - is that allowed? Is it OK if it's their choice?

the fact is there are some people who aren't cut out for high profile, high earning, high responsibility jobs by their own admission it just doesn't suit them, they want to earn enough to get by and no more, so are you saying if they admit to that then it's OK but if someone else Eg a politician makes the observation, then it isnt?

I get that it's easy to get pissed off by a politician pontificating that it's all there for the taking, yeah right, like they really get the struggles of the real person on the street NOT , but where do the boundaries start and end?

Hmm, in the cases I was thinking of, average would be a massive step up. And I think one person's "aim for the stars" is another person's baseline.

You don't want kids to give up before they have even tried, IMO. If you encourage them to aim for their dreams and follow their interests, then they are more likely to do the best they can, and as a result have the maximum possible options open to them. Its better than telling them they are stuck where they are and there is no point even attempting it.

Of course, they likely won't be super rich and successful in the league of Elon Musk. But hopefully they will land in the middle, comfortable and happy, doing something they enjoy.

My niece (bright but hated school, left with no A levels) got her first job as a bank counter cashier when she left school, and worked her way up the bank to head of Fraud. Very highly paid , with perks.

@5128gap it not about needing guaranteed career paths, there's many areas of life that are crying out for people to fill well paid jobs. Consider for example:

1. The NHS (which possibly comes close to having a guaranteed career path), we're short of doctors and nurses
2. Teaching, never enough good teachers (despite it being a rewarding career and there being a "guaranteed promotion" aka spine point increase each year)
3. Engineering sector - one I know about as I work within - we never have enough good engineers and / or project managers - there's literally a bidding war for good talent due to the shortage despite there being a) lots of schemes to get people into the sector b) plenty of well paid jobs c) varied career paths people can take

DB works for a MC firm, they are slowly changing but it's still very much privately educated white umc who are the partners earning 1m.

Those thick people are also just as likely to just be a bit stupid

There are levels of ability, with anything

Why some on here are desperate to not accept that is somewhat confusing

If you think someone who barely scraped together a health and beauty BTEC is likely to be the next CSO of AstraZeneca you're on another planet

If you think someone who barely scraped together a health and beauty BTEC is likely to be the next CSO of AstraZeneca you're on another planet

Where did I say that? I just wouldn't write people off as 'thick' or 'stupid' - and what makes you the arbiter of that anyway - because they work in lower paid jobs.

It's supply and demand. Literally anyone can be a care worker but only a small % can make it as a footballer at the highest level and an even smaller number can cut it as a CEO of a FTSE 100 company. I agree with your second paragraph but there's no reason to bring sportspeople or CEO's into the equation.

The ‘anything is possible’ brigade need to read up on structural inequality. (And they need to shut up and stop posting vacuous or misleading quotes on social media.)

@Carpy88999

Well there is a meed to be bringing them into the equation

Because the idea that ceos and footballers deserves to be paid 100s of times more than anyone else is what fuels wealth inequality

Entirely agree! All things being equal, the harder-working person is more likely to achieve their goals (which aren't necessarily to be like Elon Musk!) than the less hardworking person. But things never are equal.

YANBU my daughter has learning difficulties and her SM used to say this to her. She wanted a job you had to have a degree for. She didn't get one GCSE - no amount of work would have made it possible.

What if you haven't got the intelligence?
I have never found a sport I'm good at , I'm really uncoordinated.

I'm a cleaner . The best job I've ever had . No stress . No one in my back . Just do it go home and switch off . Brilliant for my mental health. Couldn't be happier. Wish I had done this years ago instead of tying myself up in knots trying to achieve the impossible.

And thus the cycle continues. I grew up in poverty in a very deprived area, was always told my ambition was ridiculous and not to get ideas above my station. I am where I am now not through luck but through hard work. It doesn't mean others who are stuck in low paid jobs don't work hard, but it also doesn't mean that I haven't. I don't believe everyone who wants to do x will be able to achieve it, there are plenty of jobs I wouldn't be able to ever do for various reasons, but I don't think this point of view does any favours to those who feel like they're trapped in a hopeless cycle with no chance of escape. All jobs should be respected so people shouldn't class any jobs as lesser, but plenty of people do work hard and escape shit lives.

Fantastic job of completely missing the point.

In what way? Speaking about my lived experience or...? Yes people who grow up disadvantaged whether that's financially, academically, socially or health wise have zero hope or achieving anything so they shouldn't bother.

Can you quote the poster who’s said that?

This is very true.
So many have family connections.

Its about connections not intelligence