There is not a single business owner in this country who got where they are 100% on their own

[Cerridwen]

25. The OP didn't say the mythological house

was built without an enormous amount of hard work.

The OP said that the hard work didn't happen in a vacuum.

Building ones own house is an amazing feat. My grampa was a do-it-yourself-er long before that was a cable show.

He knew how to build because he'd been taught; by his dad, a brother, a friend, whomever.

He knew how to build safely because somewhere along the line, some people had "discovered" how to install electrical wiring in a safe manner; had determined the safe loads for external versus internal walls; had determined the best materials to use for plumbing and installation.

Someone had harvested and prepared the lumber he used for walls; had manufactured the electrical wiring to some code that was determined to be safe and wouldn't burn down his house; had determined the best way to install plumbing so that water didn't leak into foundations or walls or allow sewer lines to empty on to his property.

While he was building, my gramma cleaned his clothes, cooked his meals, and cared for "his" children so that he could spend hours after an 8, 10, 12, or 14 hour day, building his home. When he sliced a finger or mashed a thumb, yep, she was the one who bandaged it. His sons and his daughter, handed him hammers, nails, his sandwich and bandages.

My grampa was a "self made man" whose family made it possible for him.

We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before. I stand on my grampa's shoulders, and my gramma's, and my mom's, and my uncles. I also stand on the shoulders of those who made it possible for me to vote, to wear pants, to speak in public, to make a contract in my name, and on, and on, and on...

That was all the OP tried to say. We humans, really are not, little islands of knowledge and skill and duty and effort.