History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, [...] The generator of historical events is different from the events… - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

There are no successful and unsuccessful people. A few ones are just trying to be someone else.

SYMMETRY: A soldier was accused of stealing someone's food and eating it. The commander offered the following Solomonic deal. They kill the soldier and look into his stomach. If there is no food as described by the accuser, the accuser is put to death.

There is a simple test to define path dependence of beliefs (economists have a manifestation of it called the endowment effect). Say you own a painting you bought for $20,000, and owing to rosy conditions in the art market, it is now worth $40,000. If you owned no painting, would you still acquire it at the current price? If you would not, then you are said to be married to your position. There is no rational reason to keep a painting you would not buy at its current market rate — only an emotional investment. Many people get married to their ideas all the way to the grave. Beliefs are said to be path dependent if the sequence of ideas is such that the first one dominates.