Recognizing the People and Factors That Helped Us Succeed.

I recently saw a Twitter post by Wolfgang Van Halen where he retweeted someone’s post about it being in bad taste to use his famous father’s last name to make a name for himself.

His reply was perfect.

Van Halen is literally my fucking name you grape.

I’ve seen comments about how so and so would never be where they are if it weren’t for the work that their mother or father put in, or because of their bloodline, or for some other bullshit reason.

Newsflash, I wouldn’t have a house if it weren’t for my bank.

Okay, I guess I could have been smarter with my money from the paper route that I blew my earnings on candy bars and soda or my full-time jobs doing whatever where I pissed my money away on whatever I pissed it away on.

I could have saved and scrimped until I was able to pay cash.

But…there are banks.

As a business model, a bank’s sole purpose is to be in the business of making money off of other people’s money. They take your money and pay you a piece of a penny for it. They loan me your money, along with a few other people’s money, and charge me a few pennies for it.

Business model.

Let me back up. If I don’t own a house, I have to live somewhere. Whether it’s a landlord or sleeping on my buddy’s sofa and kicking in a little for rent, I couldn’t live somewhere without their help.

We do nothing substantial on our own. The fact is, we need someone, or something, for all of our successes.

If you live in the middle of nowhere and hunt or gather your food, you probably wanna thank the animal that gave its life for your last steak dinner or the sunshine and proper fertilizer method for those berries that made up your fruity jam.

Did caveman Bob get pissed off at caveman Billy however many years ago because Billy was on the sunny side of the island and had more food opportunities? You bet he fucking did.

Over more than one tree bark supper, he said to cave woman Wilma that that son of a bitch Billy wouldn’t be eating that woolly mammoth short rib if he had all of their trees hindering the giant’s food source.

We’re all victims of our environment. People help us, things help us.

The amount of preaching from people today to buy and use their method of success to be successful is incredible. That’s a handout. Sure, for a small fee, but someone helped. They did all the work so that you’d only have to invest a small amount of yourself to flourish.

How about a third-generation small business in a community?

Same thing.

If grandpa hadn’t planted roots, Junior Jr. wouldn’t have been able to continue that business.

Maybe a neighbor of grandpa lent him some cash or let him borrow something for a month or two to get started. Who cares?

Truth is, it’s pointed out more prominently the more successful someone is. It, being the person or thing that made them who they were able to be today.

I’ve never read the entire bible as I’m not all that religious. But I don’t recall hearing anyone at any church service ever say that Jesus wouldn’t be who he was today without God.

Sing it, Wolfgang, fuck the haters.