You’re Daddy’s little princess.

It may be a tired cliché that many of us try to break out of the boxes we’re neatly folded into by birth, but it’s true.

My life has been easy – bills paid, a fully stocked fridge, a spacious home. I never had to worry about those things. Going by society’s stereotypes, I’m meant to be entitled and irreparably spoilt. I belong in a box labeled ‘rich kid.’

The assumption is that everything I have has come easy to me  – and for most basic necessities, that’s true. Past University, I wanted my career to be untouched by the rich kid label branded on my forehead.

Fresh off University, working in Sales, after a few short months, I learned to give ambiguous replies to enquiries about my family – all to not be met with ‘

Why are you working in Sales?’

It’s different when you know how easy you’ve had it. It’s different when you’ve licked the dry cardboard your box is made of, waiting for it to melt under your tongue. It’s different when you spend your life fighting to earn what you get.

The truth is that starting a business requires a degree of optimism that comes naturally to those of us who have been raised in sheltered environments. You’ve got to be foolish enough to believe it will work [only 20% of start-ups make it].

The other factor, I think, is that when you’re raised like I was, you begin to value things money can’t buy: respect and an all-consuming purpose.

So, I strive to stay busy through all my days and let my work dictate a lot of my time. I’d rather sweat and work than lay back and enjoy the spoils.

After all, there’s not much to do after the race is run – so it’s best to keep the wheel spinning.

So, to all you cynics, I say this: You can laugh at an optimist who had it easy, but can you keep laughing when they run twice as hard?