In the earlier stages of the year whilst the working Joe and Joanna Bloggs of the world were barely holding on to their edges some of the socioeconomically privileged were using platforms handed to them fixing their mouths to provide unsolicited advice about why we aren’t achieving our dreams. I chose to ignore Molly Mae’s comments about us all having the same 24 hours in a day and address it on my Twitter feed. And when self-acclaimed “It Girl” Kim Kardashian told us all to “get off our asses and work hard”, something some nations have been doing since the days of slavery I was too hot to turn it into ever the articulate dragathon she deserves. But as I was posting the first blog of this month I came across a term called Cumulative Advantage. This term has provided the context needed to push this argument to another level. Cumulative Advantage explains how the benefits of a group or individuals enhance, increasing the inequalities amongst the marginalised. This has a knock-on effect on society as time moves on those who were considered to have societal disadvantages are provided with more hurdles to reach their goal.

This concept is not original, it is up there with intersectionality, socioeconomic inequality and the social graces that explain the various ways the world is sectioned into the deprived and the overly advantaged. However, still, those who have spent copious amounts of their lives trying to achieve a certain status or goal are considered lazy and not impoverished due to their societal status. I write this post because there have been times in my life that I have believed that because of what I have been provided I was unworthy or incapable of reaching my heart’s desires. In my ignorance, I did not realize that the reason for my failure had nothing to do with my own personality traits. Instead, it had to do with factors that were fixed when I was born. These factors included where I was born, my ethnicity, gender and financial status that I had no control over. We have always known that for certain demographics they will have to put in more than the 10,000 hours allotted to master a craft as a resting bitch face depending on your race can result in you being judged when you innocently disappeared into a random daydream.

Influencers such as Molly Mae and The Kardashians benefit from cumulative advantages as their position within society and notoriety affords them the abilities to accumulate businesses that quickly take off making millions and are considered for deals at a higher price whilst you may be asked to do it for free items instead of payment. Although they argue that they didn’t start at this point in their careers which it is fair to say, all the same, they didn’t start from the trenches. They all started from a middle-class background, having access to contacts and resources that many could only imagine access to. (Not to mention the stealing of the less fortunate’s business ideas and passing them off as their own but I will save that for another post)

Without discouraging you from that business plan you are sections through or that YouTube page with an abundance of content you have that may not have attracted the attention of the right people, you aren’t doomed. One of our time’s greatest quotes “work smarter, not harder” is one way to combat the curse of the underprivileged. I was taught for so long that working hard would catapult me to success which isn’t entirely wrong, but society’s structure doesn’t support this method to be as productive when used in isolation. There is wealth in networking and collaborating with others that aren’t a part of the work-hard model. We have an opportunity to tip the scales considering as time moves and trends alter so do our chances to go up a rung on the ladder.

Our age should not be used as a form of measurement for life accomplishments, sometimes we are barriers to achievements, whereas other times it will be the constructs built into the world we live in that are preventing this. Moral of the story is don’t be hard on yourself but also refrain from allowing this theory to discourage your plan to whatever your wildest dreams consist of. Always remember you’re not a failure, just cumulatively disadvantaged.