Do you know how many human beings don’t have a proper house to live in? 20% of the World population.

Do you know how many human beings don’t have access to proper sanitation? 32.5% of the World population.

Do you know how many human beings live their life undernourished? 11% of the World population.

And if we consider money, more than 3,000,000,000 people live with less that $2.5/day ($75/month). It almost 40% of the World population.

Born in a different place

A huge proportion of human beings (see numbers above) live a life that is considerably harder than yours, simply because they were born in a different place.

They didn’t do anything bad to deserve it, they didn’t lack courage or willpower, they were just born in a place that doesn’t provide the minimum required to thrive as a human being.

Do I want you to feel bad about them? Do I want to make you feel guilty?

No, I don’t.

However, if you are reading those words, you obviously have access to internet, know how to read english, and probably have a device that allows you to read content online.

There are big chances that in the end of the day, you also have access to clean water to shower, can drink and eat properly, and probably will sleep in a bed, in a house that is warm and clean enough to keep you in a decent health.

It’s also very likely that the main reason why you have those advantages, compared to almost 50% of other human beings who don’t, are not necessarily because of how great you are, but most probably because of where you are born.

Which you didn’t choose.

Should you feel bad?

No, I’m not telling you all of this to make you feel bad about your privileges, but to lead you to be more aware of them.

Let’s put it this way: If you had to throw a coin in the air before being born, in 1 out of 2 cases, you’d have ended up struggling with your basic needs, just from being born in a different environment.

How great would you have done so far if your childhood had been dedicated to walk for 10km every day, only to find dirty water that would make you sick after drinking it?

How many great books would you have learnt from if you had grown up in a place, without any school or way to learn how to read?

How much of an entrepreneur would you be if all you know as a way to make money is to carry stones on your head all day long, in order to barely survive?

I know you don’t like what you are reading right now, but this is the other half of the World we are living in. 

And considering that you are sitting comfortably somewhere while reading it, you probably know nothing of this World.

I don’t know much of it myself.

But what I know is that I was never forced to experience those extreme conditions.

So what should you do?

I never had to fight every single day just to stay alive (except the day I was born and almost died, but I don’t remember it).

And that’s precisely why I write those words today.

For me, and for you, to keep in mind one of the most important truth of our respective lives:

We are extremely lucky to have what we have.

This isn’t meant to belittle our life struggles, but to increase how grateful we are about what we already have.

Because we tend to take everything for granted.

It’s also meant to lower our ego and our sense of entitlement.
To respect luck for what it is.

Luck.

Now, should we aim to live in poverty just to experience what it’s like? I don’t think so. In the end, it would be a choice anyway.

And choosing to live in poverty has nothing to do with being born in poverty. The second category didn’t choose it.

Should we feel bad about being privileged?
No, we didn’t choose it.

What we can do though, is to be more appreciative to have what we have since we were born.

It might not last forever

We can also accept that we are born lucky,
and decide to put some of this luck at the service of a bigger purpose.

Ultimately, we should put things a bit more into perspective when we feel like shit is going wrong for us.

I don’t know you, but none of my problems today is even remotely close from not having food or water available to just survive.

It doesn’t mean I am not struggling.

It means that, as it might be the case for you, most of the struggles I am facing can be solved by the decisions I take.

I can decide to spend my time learning a new skill, to take better actions and build a better business.

I can decide to lower my ego and sense of self entitlement to say sorry and solve a conflict.

And when almost half of the World struggles to survive for reasons that are way beyond their control, 

most of us are facing issues we can tackle,
only if we decide to solve them.

Don’t feel guilty for being privileged, and lucky.

Use it as a motivation for living the best life you can given those privileges, as reminder to prevent yourself from complaining when things go wrong,

And as a way for you to build up your game to help the other half who were not as lucky as you to get a chance one day.