There are three things in this world that are impossible to ignore. One is mosquitoes. The second is a crying baby. The third is a loud, opinionated person who won't go away.

All three are annoying. Two can be avoided to some extent, provided you do not spend much time in maternity wards or Florida.

Determination and perseverance are values that have become less and less valuable and more and more like kid's cartoon tropes. It is nice to tell someone they can be an astronaut or president or a ballerina, of course, so long as you work hard and try your best and don't give up, etc. These are comforting, and we hear them all the time from the astronauts and presidents and ballerinas of the world. What they do not tell you is that, among the sickening amount of hard work and misery and pain it takes to become one of those rare few, a certain small amount of luck is required. The amount of luck involved varies, depending on the profession. Someone who grows up with a burning desire to fix cars or work in a big office building will not rely on luck nearly so much as the ballerina or the astronaut.

The trick would appear to be working twice as hard to make up for the small amount of luck that may or may not be present. But it ends up like a cake in which certain ingredients are substituted for a greater amount of a different ingredient. The batter looks the same and might even taste better (especially if the ingredient is sugar) but once it goes in the oven, anyone can see the difference.

We can't all be ballerinas. Anyone can be a mosquito. Try it. It's fun.