>>6921I highly agree. For me it was mathematics which affected my career choices, in terms of higher education. Now I feel guilty for labeling myself as incapable (back then, instead of trying harder) because later I had to study some math for college and ended up enjoying it, ironically…
Another thing was being the peacekeeper of my family during "teenagehood". Very unfortunate circumstances but made me mature early and now I can socialize with, and coax, anyone I want even though I'm more on the introvert side.
In summary, poor circumstances nurtured certain skills and traits which I capitalized on once I became aware of them.
Life will never be perfect but I can safely say that I'm now better off than myself last year, family and childhood friends. And the reason for this was my envy of people dressed and behaving nicely, big houses and friends with good grades and whose parents bought them brand new cars when they got their licenses. The key was that I realized I can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different, better results.
So
yes, I think the individual is
largely to blame for their own condition. The environment only partially shares the blame. We usually think of this from the bottom-up, but I've witnessed, first-hand, people not properly managing vast resources and subsequently degrading their life situation.