Self-made men don’t exist. Allow me to share three dangers in believing that they do.
1. You did not choose the circumstance of your birth.
Deep within the American psyche lies the myth of the self-made man. According to research 71% of people believe personal attributes like hard work and drive, not the circumstances of a person’s birth, are the key determinants of financial success. The American Dream tells you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you will succeed. But the phrase itself is flawed. First listed in a physics schoolbook in the late 1800s as an illustration of an impossible task, the phrase was meant to be sarcastic as if everyone knew it was impossible.
Truthfully, you are a product of circumstances that began at birth. You could have been born in another country under dramatically different circumstances and do you still believe your life would have turned out the same?
Believing the lie of the self-made man is hubris over humility. If you do everything on your own then you will naturally believe you are superior to others and suffer from arrogance and self-importance. There is only one man in all of history who chose the circumstances of his birth – Jesus – and he chose humility, not hubris. He identified with the suffering not the sanctimonious, and he invites us to do the same.
2. You did not accomplish anything on your own.
True leaders don’t take credit, they give it. They know they did not achieve anything on their own. Contrary to popular opinion and a multitude of self-help, self-actualizing books, no one is an island. I would not be an attorney today if not for supportive parents, scholarships, helpful teachers, and other lawyers who believed in me. And Administer Justice would not have expanded into 13 new locations in the first twelve weeks of 2024, without the involvement of many people. Thousands of lives are impacted not because of me, but because of an amazing staff that supports hundreds of volunteers in doing justice with mercy and compassion.
“No one does justice alone” is our mantra, but honestly no one accomplishes anything alone. In Persevering Power, I write about the New Testament’s 100 passages talking about “one another”. As I wrote,
“If we could put the interest of others ahead of our own, the world would be a much different place. Politicians put selfish ambition ahead of the common good. Even church leaders can put the church and its financial and numeric growth ahead of the discipleship of people. Spouses demand that needs be met instead of putting the other spouse first. Jobs are hard because bosses put profit above people and people put their interests ahead of coworkers and the company. We’re a selfish mess.”
Persevering Power pp. 135-36
3. You are not God.
The history of the self-made man is one of hubris, which was a word coined by the Greeks for someone who stood against the gods. We lure ourselves into believing our efforts have achieved success when it is only the grace of God that has done so. There is only one God, and you are not Him. He warned you, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” Dt. 8:17,18
The danger is real. Psychologists discuss something called the fundamental attribution error that often accompanies this self-made man problem. This is when you attribute a character trait to someone simply based on a circumstance. A classic case is poverty – believing that the poor are poor by laziness and choice rather than by circumstances. This can lead to feeling superior and not needing to help or to minimally help from a posture of paternalism rather than a recognition that the materially poor are of equal value and significance.
The next time someone says to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, do me a favor and cut them. Let’s all stay down to earth, be grateful for the circumstances of our birth, the role others have played in our lives, and not play God in judging others.
