I’m weirdly in this camp. I’m not tall but I am very broad shouldered. I wrestled varsity from 7th grade thru college. I’m also admittedly, a social butterfly. I don’t like to fight, in fact I pretty much hate it…I have a mild temperment and a decent sense of humor. I’ve always been able to talk my way out of situations without even knowing there was a situation happening. The only difference is that I grew up fighting.
I’m also VERY good at missing out on women who happen to be flirting with me. I don’t think it’s a coincidence!
I guess my biggest stroke of luck, like several others have mentioned, was being born to great parents. They were very loving and supportive, we had a very stable home life, etc.
And then, like others said, being born in the US and being middle class (which makes me much wealthier than most of the people in the world). Being pretty smart.
I’m also tall, which I guess is good in some situations. Better than being short, I guess, but I’m usually a head taller than most people in a room, and I tend to be a person who’d prefer to blend in with the crowd. On the other hand, if need be I can use it to my advantage and look intimidating.
I won a completely free educational trip to Italy through the National Italian American Foundation. That was just by the random luck of having some Italian-American ancestry…
I’m pretty normal looking, which is a lot luckier than being on the bad extreme of that scale. I’m no great beauty, but I’m not super ugly either (I think) – just average. That may sound bad, but really, in this society it’s gotta be a big disadvantage if you’re born looking really “ugly” to most people, unfair though it is.
I’m about to hijack my own thread - Rodgers - where did you get your user name?
Somewhat to my surprise, you’re the second person in a few days to ask about my screen name. No, it’s not my real last name, if that’s what you’re getting at. I just happened to be chilling out to some music by the guy who wrote standards such as My Funny Valentine and The Lady is a Tramp when I was signing up for the SD, and it seemed like a good enough name, as I was getting sick of the handle I used to use. But no, no relation. (Which is too bad, as I’d love to be raking in the royalties from The Sound of Music these days…)
I do share my real last name with another American music great (which has inspired a nickname from some friends), and my middle name always inspires a “Oh, you mean like _________ from the Simpsons?”, but I’m too internet-shy to share my real name, so I’ll just leave it up to your imagination. 
Word. Being pleasant-looking and innocent/pure has its advantages. I’m not a raving beauty, just a girl with a sweet face and bumps in the right places. But – and this is a big but – I’ve never been badly treated because of that. The female thing gets in the way sometimes (“Are you sure you want to watch Full Metal Jacket, miss? How about this J. Lo movie?”), but the “not hideous” thing never has. The pure thing has, though, now that I think about it. Apparently, I’m the “kind of girl you marry,” but nobody’s asking. And I can’t swear without people laughing at me. Sigh.
Um, I have good parents and I’m white. I don’t think I can think of counterexamples for those.
The papal indulgence is a “get into heaven free” card. This one requires “dying with the name of the savior on your lips,” though. the only dogmatic advantage is that were I to die without a priest around to confess to, an to perform last rites, I’d be ok.
The irony is that I’m an atheist, and think the whole thing is hogwash. Still, I know some people who consider it an advantage.
Being born a Native Speaker of English.
I have never had much of a career plan but everything I have been able to do over the past 11 or 12 years has been down to the fact that English is my mother tongue. Essentially it’s allowed me the wonderful privilege of meeting literally hundreds of people from a dozen different countries and cultures; experience life in different countries and try my hand at different types of work (within the frame of EFL).
At the same time, another piece of luck - I am not simply ‘English’, being half Welsh and having looks which at various times have been taken for Italian/Spanish/Portuguese etc. has always aided me in side-stepping any ‘anti-English/British’ sentiment.
Good question, and in my case the answer is ‘loads / too many to list’.
In common with some of the previous posts, I figure that being born a white male in a modern, Western, industrlialised nation (England) means I’m better off than 95% of the peope in the world and 99% of the people who have ever lived.
Obviously, English is my native language, and this is a massive stroke of luck in terms of the opportunities I have that other people have to work for. I get to travel the world, and just about everywhere I go there is always someone who can manage at least basic conversational English, and usually a lot more. (And I travel to some pretty remote places.)
I can spell. I never worked at this, or tried hard at school. I’m just one of those people who ‘get’ Engluish spelling, even though it’s crazier than crazy paving and makes no sense. Words just ‘look’ right to me. I know I’m not the only person with this mind quirk. It’s not fair, because I know many other people who really try to learn to spell and get nowhere. (Of course, having written this there are bound to be spelling errors in this post.)
I’m exactly six feet tall. I love this fact. It’s entirely luck, of course, but it’s just the perfect height to be for a man. Not short, not too tall. Just right.
My one other natural, lucky advantage, is that I have a really good speaking and performing voice. I’m a performer and entertainer, and if I have to I can address 350 people without a microphone and they can all hear and understand me clearly. This is a real, practical advantage in many places where they promise me there will be a mic, but then someone screws up and I get there and there isn’t. I have had professional voice coaches compliment me on my voice and vocal projection, and all assume that I’ve had a lot of coaching and I’ve put in many hours of practise and vocal development. Nope. I’ve never worked on this at all. It’s just the voice I was born with. (I can’t sing, though, and I envy people who can.)
Something else I can’t take credit for is that my parents, who were and are great parents, happened to always place a due amount of emphasis on politeness and good manners. I have often thanked them for this, because I know it has done me many favours over the years and opened many doors for me. There are other people I know who really let themselves down because other people find them impolite and ill-mannered, but in a sense it’s not their fault because they were just never shown how and never taught any different.
I’ve also been unbelievably lucky in terms of the countless great people I’ve met, and I can’t really put this down to anything but sheer dumb luck.
Pardon my brilliance.
I was born in the US. Even though I’m from a fairly depressed region (West Virginia), my upbringing was much better off materially than the great majority of the world.
I grew up in Morgantown, where the state’s major university (WVU) is located. WVU received lots of federal funding, which allowed them to keep the tuition reasonable enough for me to pay as I went. Had any of this not been true – if I had had to move away and take out loans – I doubt I would have gone to college.
Also, one of my engineering professors had worked at the government agency where I now work, and had years ago set up the recruiting program through which I was ultimately hired.
Although I do exercise regularly and watch my diet pretty carefully, I seem to have an easier time staying in shape than most people my age. My father was the same way, so I may have inherited the tendency.
My parents are smart, and they planned for having smart kids. My dad didn’t contribute a lot to ‘parenting’ me, but he made sure I got a damn good education.
I was born smart, which was lucky. And I started going to one of the best private schools in the country when I was 3. Very lucky. And my dad’s job included college tuition for the kids at any accredited college or university in the country, up to the cost of the tuition at the very expensive university where he’s a professor. So I went to one of the best private universities in the counties - for free. (And not the one where he teaches - I could choose ANY university).
So I got brains, and was handed the training to use them on a silver plate. I know how lucky that makes me.
Pretty much everything I have in my life right now is due to a stroke of massive good luck. One day, a letter came to my mailbox in Canada, from an American woman who wanted to buy what I was selling. To make a long story short, we’ve been married for 8 1/2 years. I went from being on welfare, living in a little room in a basement, unable to find a job, broke and having no direction or purpose, nor any prospective love interest, to having a truly amazing wife, living in a nice house in the suburbs here in Tallahassee, with just about all the things a man could reasonably hope to have. Toys, tools, cats, friends, the respect of my peers.
Also, I have my dream job due to a stroke of luck. I had a crap job that was the first one that called me after I got my work permit. After two years, I was more than ready to quit. The new position, which just happened to be my second love, in a field where I have experience and aptitude and a high level of proficiency, just came my way out of the blue. I’ve been there going on five years. That was another amazing stroke of luck.
Considering what I’ve been through, it looks like now I am living a charmed life. I thank my wife for sending that letter, all the time. If it hadn’t happened, I don’t want to think about how crappy my life would still be. I am a lucky man, and I know it.
Oops, typo. Married 7 1/2 years. Sorry!
Parents. They gave me my intelligence, and my upbringing. I can’t thank them enough for either.
Better than average shlong.
apologies, but this thread has been too wholesome
Well, one out of every four babies born is Chinese, and my parents were lucky enough not to have one of those. 
Same here. I don’t know if it’s some specialized kind of eidetic memory or what, but spelling (in any language using the Latin alphabet) has never been a problem for me. The only words I stumble with are the ones that have two equally reasonable alternatives, such as “realise” versus “realize” (I’m sure I use those two about equally) and words that have way too many vowels in a row for their own good, such as “Montesquieu”.
I was born in Sweden, that I consider to be the greatest and loveliest country on Earth. I love it here and consider myself infinitely lucky to be born here.
My parents are great. They’re not perfect, but nobody is. They gave me a great upbringing. I never felt alone or unloved.
I’m bright as a bulb. No need to be bashful about it, we’re all clever here. School was always easy for me. I guess this also made me somewhat less ambitious than someone who’s had to work to achieve what I did without trying much, but you can’t have everything.
Just by pure luck, I was born with my intestines on the inside.
I’m just going to let that one hang out there so you guys can all just seethe with jealousy.
BITCH!!!
God, probably all of them.
There’s the supportive, open-minded and loving parents.
I’m graced with above average intelligence, as well as an intuitive knack for grammar.
No student loans - a direct consequence of above parents showing their support and love by letting me live, rent-free, at home while I was in university.
I’m tall, pink, and male, with a full head of hair that shows no signs of receding. And I just look honest.
A wondrous metabolism that lets me eat as much cheese and drink as much beer as I want without becoming a flabby tuskless walrus.
Roommates who don’t snort caffeine off my Wilco CDs.
My Canadian passport.