# Do you really believe that you are the master of your own fate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-really-believe-that-you-are-the-master-of-your-own-fate/62888>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 22, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-really-believe-that-you-are-the-master-of-your-own-fate/62888 "2001-04-22T16:41:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-really-believe-that-you-are-the-master-of-your-own-fate/62888/21 "2001-04-29T20:50:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \*  
> \*\*I have a friend who is always talking about how much bad luck he’s had in his life. He’s not successful, and he can point to some honest-to-god bad luck that happened to him and sabotaged him. And he’s right about some of those events. However, he has also had more chances and good luck than anyone I know - he just screwed it up. So he forgets about those events, and remembers the bad ones (and we all have bad luck at one time or another). He’s convinced that life has handed him a bum deal.
> 
> Don’t be like that.
> 
> \*\*

Wow. What a great post. Thank you! I have always felt (and been repeatedly told) that I had really bad luck. I believed… oh, how I believed. For many years. Hmmm… can we say “self-fulfilling prophecy”?

Your words are wise and simple and somewhere along the lines of “Why-the-Hell Didn’t-I-Have-the Good-Sense-to-Figure-Out-What-You-Just-Said-Years-Ago?”

Jeez… I’ve been shelling out $100 an hour twice a month for psychotherapy for more years than I’d care to admit, then you go and make beautiful, perfect sense. I’m serious, Dude. I can’t believe that nobody ever told me what you just said. Or maybe I just never listened.

Guess I f_inally_ got lucky! 🙂

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-really-believe-that-you-are-the-master-of-your-own-fate/62888/22 "2001-04-29T20:58:14Z")

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Holy Cow. I don’t think anyone has ever said something as nice to me before on a message board. Thanks.

With the amount of time I spend on here, it sure is great to know that it might have had a positive effect on someone. You made my day!

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