<p>Do success and happiness depend on the choices people make rather than on factors beyond their control?</p>
<p>A famous English author once penned almost three hundred years ago that chance governs almost every aspect of our lives. Indeed, although ostensibly all people are successful due to certain choices they make, in reality factors beyond people’s control make people fail or succeed much more. Three relevant examples serve to exemplify this almost universal truism.</p>
<p>First of all, the German State of Bavaria demonstrates that no matter how one tries, fate will always come in at the last moment as the highest and final decider of success. King Martin Grosse, in the late 1800s, pushed through a series of reforms inn the near-bankrupt state in the Holy Roman Empire. As a result, the economy soared due to his actions and the people prospered. Martin Grosse was rumored to have slept only once every two days, continually writing and rewriting and restructuring Bavaria’s fundamental infrastructure. In fact, Bavaria was struck with a series of unforseeable natural disasters. Every time a house was built, two more were destroyed from floods and lightning. In the end, Bavaria was conquered and razed by a neighboring state. Despite the fact that Martin Grosse is considered a failure almost universally, in truth he was actually an extremely diligent man. It was fate, those things uncontrollable by man, that finally caused Bavaria to fall, not those things man expertly manipulates.</p>
<p>Secondly, the protagonist of the novel Savage World by Kristan Marquis demonstrates that it is rare to see men sad or dejected because they choose to live that way; on the direct contrary, happiness is mainly controlled by things man will never be able to control. Jimmy Fever, a husband from California, suddenly loses everything in the stock market one day and is forced to live as a despondent vagrant out in the streets. A few months later, he is suddenly promoted in his job at a fast food restaurant and become the manager of the restaurant; then, the fast food restaurant goes bankrupt and Jimmy becomes homeless once again. In the end, he swings from a homeless to a wealthy banker from a will of his deceased uncle, and yet gets fired and finally hangs himself. Most of these sudden and drastic changes could never be predicted by any man; most of these changes in his life are caused by God’s dice, fair and unbiased.</p>
<p>Finally, during the Mildavian Revolution of 1872, 50,000 peasants from around the country rose up and almost overthrew the incumbent British rulers. Carrying illegal or smuggled weapons, they fought a brutally surrounded and despondent British army of only 20,000. The leader of the rebellion, Un’ Kahe, encamped his army in the hills around the capital. Suddenly, however, a massive tsunami rolled in and drowned most of the rebellious army, why quickly dispersed. The British, in the high walls of the capital, were relatively unaffected. Although certain victory seemed just around the corner for the rebels, events uncontrollable by any human hands drastically altered the course of history. </p>
<p>In conclusion, while men should all certainly strive for success, all men should ultimately and grimly remember that fate may act at any moment – and do anything and everything.</p>