In how far should man commit himself in private and public life?

"You will be eternally responsible for what you have acquainted yourself with. You are responsible for your rose." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince)

Every Man is the Architect of his own Fortune

by Nazli Yüksek & Yara Krismer, BG-BRG Kufstein/Austria

A lot of people might know the saying: “Every man is the architect of his own fortune”. But is this actually true in real life? Are we capable of choosing our own path in life? If so, are there limits? In this article we will try to answer these questions on the basis of different examples.

Everyone of us was born into a certain family. Whether it’s big or small, modern or traditional, it shapes us in many different and essential areas. Since we cannot choose our families, we cannot control which morals and values we face early in our lives. Especially when we are still very young, we tend to see our family members as idols we want to follow and who shape our opinions on things. That’s why our decisions and actions are influenced by the moral concepts our families teach us, especially as a child. For example, children that grow up in a rather racist family will probably have tendencies to be racist as well until they are mature enough to build up their own opinions and expand their horizon.

Our morals and values develop on the basis of different factors. They are based not only on our families and other people but also on our experiences and what we are taught in school. As soon as we reach a certain age we start not to only have idols but also our own opinions. So, we decide actively what we think about certain topics and what decisions we make and so on. Our morals and values are things we actively create once we are old and mature enough to do so.

Photo: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001303180/using-active-passive-voices-in-grammar-and-verb-application

Education also influences our own morals and values. However, we do not decide what’s in the curriculum. It even differs from country to country, in fact, from region to region. This means that children and teenagers develop differently.

Still, education and the career path we choose are mostly in our hands. This is absolutely relevant since our academic success influences the whole quality of our life.

Even if we can improve the quality of our life through our academic development for example, the standard of living of the country we live in has a tremendous influence as well. So, for instance someone who lives in Switzerland and enjoys its high standards and great educational system, will have more opportunities to develop than someone living in a developing country.

Also, we can share our opinions and values in political terms. We have the opportunity to do so actively in the government of our society by voting. Everyone has the right to have a political opinion.

Lastly, we can say that in most ways we can build up our own path but we cannot control all circumstances and conditions.

Translated into English by Nazli Yüksek, BG-BRG Kufstein/Austria

posted 21.03.2019 14:00

I really enjoyed reading your article, Nazli. You spoke out many of my thoughts.

I agree with you that the family you grow up with influences you, especially when we are young.

My opinion about this topic is that I that we should always be responsible for the way we live and shouldn't blame someone else when we fail. Many people are too lazy to stand up for something in public life, especially when they have to give up something in order to get what they want. We could have stopped climate change already, if the whole mankind would give up something, for example going on holiday by plane, but they don't do anything because it wouldn't be as comfortable as before. In the end most humans react only if it's dramatic or too late.

Julian Stöckl - 18.05.2019 @ 18:42

Dear Nazli and Yara,

your opinion of passive and active attitude towards life was very interesting to read. I agree with you when you say that your surroundings, family and friends really shape you until you're ready to develop a rather independent way of thinking and building up your mind.

I always have to think of "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens when I'm talking about active and passive attitudes. He was born in a foster home with no parents and mean people working there, until he himself decided to change something. One day he asked for more food, as an outcome of this he was sold, but then he ran away and decided to join a group of burglars. Luckily he met his rich grandpa and in the end he was able to lead a life every child would want to lead. He did all of this because he wanted to, except the part with his grandpa - it was not his decision to meet him.

So is there something like destiny? I believe there's both, so sometimes you should stand up for yourself, but sometimes you can also lean back and let things happen.

Valentin Innerbichler - 19.05.2019 @ 22:42

Everybody wants to achieve something. We have the ability to change the world, but people who live in a passive way don't take the challenge. Instead of creating their best "private world", they seek for an easy way to feel pleasure and escape from reality. But when it comes to real life they are not happy with themselves, because it is not as they want it to be. This causes a lack of satisfaction, low self-esteem and depression. Unfortunately it's very common in our times. Today it's so easy to "run away", all you have to do is just to take your smartphone or watch TV and you don't have to worry about other things.

I can relate to "Stones for the Rampart" (by Aleksander Kamiński) where a couple of friends finish school, and they can arrange their lives however they want, but at the same time World War II breaks out. Even though, they don't surrender. They do everything that they possibly can to continue education and fight with Nazis for better future sacrificing their lives. Throughout the book they are all happy, I would say happier than most youths today. 

Living in harmony with yourself and actively changing the world in your way is the key to happiness.

Maciej Czuba - 16.06.2019 @ 20:28

Great article, Nazil and Yara!

So many factors influence one’s way of thinking. As you said, our brains are shaped by people around us and information we hear every day. While growing we are taught to select which ones are true or false. Later we are able to judge if they suit our current knowledge. If yes, everything is fine. But if not- we should think about it and maybe we should change our mind if that what we thought was not true? At the beginning the Little Prince knew only what he observed in his small world, but after visiting other planets and meeting new people he could confront his and others’ ways of thinking.

Julian, of course, when we have our own opinion and it can be confirmed by certain arguments, we should stand up for it.

Valentin, I agree with you, because you are right that it’s also important to have a skill to know when to discuss and stand up for our opinion and when to keep our thoughts only for ourselves.

Damian Stępak - 17.06.2019 @ 00:04

Thank for your article, Nazli!

I really enjoyed your text. It seems like you’ve deeply researched the topic. I would like to go more into detail about those two types of attitudes.

People with an active attitude live a full life. They are not afraid of expressing  their opinions and taking risks. Activity is connected with innovation, subjectivity and success. We need this commitment to the development of society. A lack of initiative and indifference, which could change into bad conformism, are characteristic of a passive attitude. On the other hand, passiveness has also a positive aspect – a seek for stabilization.

We can find a good example of these attitudes in a book called "Labors of Sisyphus" (written by Stefan Żeromski). The story tells us about students that rebel against the russification in their school. They present their activity and the teachers’ passivity.

The era of professionalism forces us to be more active in one area at the expense of others, in which we remain passive. At last I want to say that we should fight against our passiveness.

Szymon Pstrusiński - 18.06.2019 @ 00:45

Hello Nazli and Yara, I really liked your article.

I agree with you  that family and surroundings shape us I also really do believe that : “Every man is the architect of his own fortune”.

So many things can have influence on us. Our family and friends have the most powerful impact. These days the Internet also affects our actions, views and who we are or want to be. Despite that, only we can take responsibilty for what we do and we can decide how we want to be perceived.

For example, it doesn't mean that you will be a bad parent just because yours weren't perfect. Of course it depends on a specific person but from all of our experiences and people that we’ve met we can learn something bad or good. We just have to realise that our life depends on what we do. Not on how we are treated by our parents or friends. It's obvious that it has a gigantic influence on our lives but what we will do with it depends only on us. If someone came from a very loving and caring family it doesn’t mean that he’ll be a better person than someone from a difficult family with a complicated and traumatic past. It is like that because each of us thinks differently. We can be from a family in which we didn’t feel good and we were suffering every single day, but we can decide that we want to be happy despite that . So we will try to be a better person on every step just to be happy and make other people feel better because who knows what they are going through. In that case family has a major impact on us but it’s a good influence. It might be hard and painful but this is what made us the person we are now. It works both ways – because of our painful family experience we can also become an introvert  who has problems with dealing with pain or a person who wants to hurt other people because he has been hurt. It works the same with the ‘good’ families. The child raised in a house full of love and care could be, for example, spoiled or be like his parents – kind and loving.

To summarize, I think that everything in our life has an influence on us. But only we can decide how big this influence is and what we are going to do with it.

Monika Pociecha - 01.07.2019 @ 17:55

Hello Nazli and Yara!

We really enjoyed reading your article. We agree with what you wrote.

There are a lot of things that influence our lives, for example our family and our environment. As you wrote in your article we are not able to choose how and where we grow up, but as we grow older we can make our own decisions and you get the chance to control your own life and influence your fortune. Unfortunately not everyone has the possibility to make their own decisions so we should be grateful and take the chance to change our life if we have the opportunity. 

Lilly Paulmann - 04.10.2019 @ 13:39