'I made it all on my own!' Yea, sure you did...

'What's with your hair?' It was the Big Day. I was in the conference room discussing the flow of the event with the host, when Vidya approached me with this question. 'What's with my hair?' I asked back. 'Why didn't you brush it?' I smiled, hearing my mum in my head. My whole childhood had the same morning conversation on repeat. Every day my mum would stop me at the door with the same question. 'But I did, I brushed it.' 'Take off your shoes, go to the mirror and brush it again'. The result was usually equally miserable, no matter how many times I was returning. Here I was some decades later still answering the same question. 'It's ok Vidya, my hair doesn't matter.' 'It matters, you have to look good on the stage.' She pulled me to the washroom, forced to re-do my hair, squeezed some tissues into my pocket ('In case it's hot, you cannot have shiny face') and chided me for forgetting to remove stiches from the vent of my jacket at the back. Now, as you may not realize from this encounter, Vidya is not my mum or my boss, she is the head of the creative agency that came to the conference to coordinate taking photos and videos. And she is very determined to do her job right, if it means scolding the client, then be it. I could not stop laughing inside when she was bossing me around as if I was a school girl.

Going to the stage, I wiped my face with the tissues I got from her... when I looked around the room, I saw in all corners of the audience different people on 'stand by'. I thought of all the others who couldn't come but worked on the event. So many hours of collective work, so much passion and effort combined. What would this event be without all of them? And here I am getting the photos.

I heard this sentence so many times from different people: 'I made it!' Many stories are told this way - as a journey of the individual, as if the life was a lonely mountain, that you climb on your own, with no support. People go out of their way to illustrate how much did it cost them to get to the point in life that they consider 'success' - listing all sacrifices, rejections, late nights, discipline... It is true, there is always the element of personal achievement to anything we do. But taking all the credit for what happens in your life is a great simplification. Here's why:

1. We can't take credit for life circumstances.

I always thought I had it hard. I was born in a poor family in a communist country (nothing special, everyone was equally poor). It took me years to realize how 'lucky' I was. I started school exactly at the point of communism collapse and I went into university as Poland entered European Union. Yes, I had to work hard, but, thanks to geopolitical circumstances I could get scholarship to study abroad, I could get a passport, I could experience Europe without borders. If I was born just 10 years before, none of this would be possible, my youth would be very different, who knows what I would become. And yes, I could have it easier, but I also could have had it much harder. One of the most painful things I experienced through years of work in countries which economies are defined as 'emerging' is meeting so many talented people, who have it so much 'up the hill'. I met kids smart as a whip who will never get education as they are either orphans or need to work to support their family as of age of 6 or 7. I met incredibly entrepreneurial women running small-scale businesses with impressive talent and resilience, but they have no option to get funding to make something really big out of it. Girls who married so young they never learned to read properly. People who not only will never get a passport, but don't even have an ID card.

World is unfair. I lived in some of the wealthiest countries in the world and whenever I heard someone bragging with pride about their achievements in their safe and sound paradise, I wish I had a magic wand to teleport them. I wish I could send them for a day to one of those places, where life circumstances are so difficult to overcome. I feel so tempted to at least shake them in such moment and tell one, simple sentence: count your blessings, dude...

2. We can't take credit for all the good people who support us.

The records say that sir Edmund Hillary was quite stubborn in his refusal to admit that he was the first one to put the foot on Mt Everest. It was the testimony Tenzing Norgay, his travelling partner that gave him the credit. Why didn't he want to admit that? Because he was convinced he wouldn't make it without his companion and he knew all too well how easy it was for media and geographical societies of those times to 'skip' the contributions of sherpas. Sir Hillary thought it was only fair to share the accomplishment.

No matter how hard you work, you will always have people who supported you one way or another. When I went to the university, I had to work three part-time jobs to support myself, my parents could not afford the cost of life in a big city for me. They were still sending me $200 a month that would cover a shared room and basic food. All the rest was on me. When I finally came back home for Christmas, I was quite tired... But being at home, I realized what it meant that I was taking $200 out of house budget every month. It was not my parents paying, it was the whole family taking a hit in their life standard to support me. It shut me up about money once and for all, I stopped complaining and just was grateful...

If not your parents or family, then a teacher who spend extra time with you, or a clerk in a bank that gave you approval for a loan you needed to start, even though your rating wasn't the highest. Your manager who believed in you, or a random stranger that gave you a good advice, a friend who shared the meal with you when you were out of cash. Your spouse who took care of kids while you were preparing for that 'big presentation'. A person that gave away the last seat on the bus when you were trying to get to the city for the job interview. A taxi driver who returned your notebook you forgot in the car with all your important information. An executive that took time to coach you, even though it was not in their job description. Scan through your memories and think of all the smaller and bigger contributions you received from the others.

Count your blessings.

3. We can't take credit for luck.

A phone rang on my 30th birthday, when I was walking back from the diner with my dear friend Pati. It was an unknown number, a headhunter, asking me if I would be interested in working in the LEGO Group. I have spent the last week travelling with Pati through the French Rivera and debating endlessly on how much I need a change. I was bored at my job, I was bored in Switzerland, so many good friends moved out from Geneva, where I lived, it felt empty and lonely. And then this phone call. On my birthday. Offering a job on a brand I loved since I was a kid. The headhunter was based in Prague, where the regional LEGO office was located. I was quite in astonishment. 'How did you even get my number? Why me?' 'Someone recommended you.' 'Can I know who?' 'No, the person would like to stay anonymous.' We picked up a bottle of Champaign on the way home and sat long in the night on my balcony debating who could it be. I did not know anyone in Prague. And I did not know anyone who worked at the LEGO Group. And yet somehow the stars aligned and, after couple of rounds of interviews, I got a job of my dreams and moved to another country... the rest is history, as they say.

And yes, you can say, that, whoever recommended me, did it based on my work, or whatever merits they saw in me. They probably did not just pull out the name from the hat (orrrr? did they? ;)) However, consider this: first, the recruiter asked that very person who apparently knew me (luck), they had me on top of their mind in this moment (luck), the recruiter took the advice (luck), and lastly, he called me in the point of my life when I was really contemplating the change, but too lazy to do anything about it. That gave me that push I needed.

Sometimes you are simply lucky in life and that is no achievement you can own. Just count your blessings.

Your health, your brain power, your friends and family, supportive people you met on your way, your life circumstances. Count your blessings.

Vidya said next time she will supervise my hair ahead of the event... Whatever it means. I bless the destiny for putting such people on my way, who are able to complete all the things that I am missing. I would not be where I am otherwise.