Two ledgers

"We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is work." Frederick Douglass said it from a lecture stage more than fifty times, and he had earned the right to.

He was born into bondage in Maryland in 1818, taught himself to read from a spelling book and the children of the people who owned him, and escaped at twenty. From 1859 on he gave one lecture, Self-Made Men, in halls across the country. He did not say it was easy and he did not say it was all him. He said self-made men are the ones who owe little to birth and friendly surroundings, and nearly everything to work. He had seen genius fail and plain work win, every time.

And he was honest about the rest. He named the people who taught him his letters and the ones who hid him on the way out. His point is one I come back to constantly: what was handed to you and what you did with it are two different ledgers, and most people keep only one.

The ones who credit themselves for their inheritance are lying. The ones who credit their inheritance for their work are hiding.

This month is called You, and this is the clearest answer anyone has given to what part of you is yours. Not all of it. Not none of it. Two columns, kept honestly.

Most of us have told both lies, depending on the room. Writing the two lists is the first time most people stop.