Abusing Math

I'm sure this is one of those things that most people struggle with at some point in life. With all of the changes in my life recently, I have been working on a revision of my goals and expectations... not that I ever had a concrete set to begin with. I think I'm back to my original dilemma... the one that started the need for this blog in the first place.

Essentially, I want to know if all that crap that parents and teachers feed us in elementary school is true... can you really achieve anything you put your mind to... be anything you want?

From what I can tell, the equation looks something like this (although I wouldn't be surprised if I'm already way off base here)...

(A x Natural Ability) + (B x Internal Drive) + (C x Situational Factors) = What You Can Achieve

Natural Ability is your god-given physical and mental abilities.
Internal Drive is that intangible ambition, determination, motivation, and focus.
Situational Factors is what I call things like rich parents, supportive friends, growing up in a big city, etc. - all the external things that help you or hurt you.

Incidentally, Internal Drive and Situational Factors can be positive or negative.

A, B, and C are the weights that each one carries - how influential each one is relative to the others in determining what you can achieve.

Also, keep in mind that "What You Can Achieve" is not an absolute value either - it's relative - it's a place along your own value curve of what you think is important in life (family, material wealth, spiritual growth, etc.).

Question 1: What are A, B, and C. Which factor is most important?

Question 2: Is the sum really limitless? Natural ability is not limitless. There are boundaries to the kind of external advantages or disadvantages you have in life as well. That only leaves internal drive with the potential to be limitless. Is that enough to really allow you to achieve anything you want?

I'm having a horrible time answering these questions. All I have for data is the observations I make about the people around me and whatever propaganda the media feels like feeding me. That has got to be way too small of a sample... plus I'm sure there's personal bias that I am unable to remove.

Well, since I've already crammed all of life into an flagrantly flawed but deceptively logical equation, let's take it for a spin...

Testing Question 1 - What's more important?
Let's take the classic, all-American stereotype of one of the lowest level jobs - the fast food joint employee (obviously excluding the teenagers who just take that kind of a job for some extra cash). Now which explanation is the most convincing:
a) This person works at McDonald's because they only have the mental capability to count change and flip burgers (Natural Ability).
b) This person is not motivated enough to go out and get a higher paying job (Internal Drive).
c) Some kind of hardship in life requires them to take this kind of job - they didn't get a chance to finish school, they have families to take care of, etc (Situational Factors).
d) They just don't value career advancement. They are perfectly happy with whatever else they have going on in their lives (Value of Achievement).
Again, my question is which factor is the most likely explanation.

Testing Question 2 - Are the possibilities of what you can achieve really limitless?
For this test, I usually just try and think of extreme examples and ask if there is even the slightest bit of chance that they are really possible. I'm just going to ask these questions in the first person to keep things simple. Of course, since we have already established that natural ability is not limitless, I will have to steer away from achievements that are universally agreed upon as being limited by that... like "Could I run a 4-minute mile?" The answer to that is not only "no," but "hell no," or more like "hell no because my heart would explode mid-run." So on to the questions where there is at least the slightest bit of ambiguity...
a) Could I really be president?
b) Could I get Brad Pitt to marry me?
c) Could I be the next Warren Buffett or Donald Trump?
Keep in mind, this is not just about likelihood - the glint of possibility has implications of its own - so, is there even a .00001% chance that any of these things are possible? Basically, if I was driven/psychotic enough, could I reach these goals? Or is the answer ultimately no, you will always hit the brick wall first (a.k.a. the limit of your natural ability - intelligence, charm, supermodel-hotness).

Don't get distracted by the obvious capitalistic, superficial bent of these questions. I just picked easy ones to ask. Those three "goals" weren't on my wish list. I only have one wish on my real list. Don't even bother guessing what it is :) Focus on helping me answer some of these questions and I'll consider spilling the beans.

For anyone who thinks that all of this rambling is pointless and the answers are completely obvious, just answer this - is any dream unreasonable? Should I "keep hope alive" or just "be realistic."