“It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.”
– Randy Pausch

It is folly to sit and pine that someone else has a better life than you and therefore, it is futile to work hard and overcome your circumstance.

It is undeniable that life, like a card deck, has brighter days and oh so grim ones that relegate some to a more mundane existence, while the kings and queens and nobility revel in fortune and power. Does this mean the 36 numbered cards in the deck have no hope to lead a satisfying and meaningful life?

Should the 36 numbered cards weep and wail at the absence of an aristocratic lineage?

Today’s society has lost its fight…its spark. People are all too eager to throw in the towel and blame their own poor decisions, lack of conviction and courage on the cards they were dealt.

I would be disingenuous to claim life is fair, but reflect on times past… are we not living in the most technologically, egalitarian and virtuous time in human history?

Are we as a human race not better off than our parents, our grandparents?
The number of people lacking access to education today is large, however, more people are literate today than anytime in recorded human history.

Large swathes of the western world experienced racial segregation and systemic racisms, the east was crippled by impacts of colonialism real till as recently as 70 years.

Post world war 2 we saw a boom in birth rates, wealth, education and freedom of thought.

Yet, in 2025 we still see people complain about the oppression they are facing due to past injustices.

Again, I’m not denying people weren’t and aren’t wronged today, but what is the alternative? should a person languish in the cards they were dealt? or would it be more productive and amiable to work hard and give your best shot to make something of yourself?

It is certainly difficult to overcome trauma inflicted on a person, specially in their most vulnerable state.. but in my experience, the greatest tragedy for such people is the inability to grab that lifeline that someone throws them. It is akin to someone drowning in a shipwreck but being able to scream when a passing ship sails past to get rescued.

We have a lot more opportunities today to redefine our lives, but the choice is ours… do we want to be shaped by our past or things we couldn’t control.

I often reflect on this quote by Randy Pausch, because I have come to realise looking back in self pity is a sure way to remain still. I rather play the hand I’m dealt to win.