Nope.
You can't physically pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Don't believe it? Give it a go. Put on some boots, grab the straps, and try to pull yourself off the ground. It won't work because, well, gravity. Pulling yourself up requires relying on something—or someone—else. Everyone needs help.
But the idea the expression is now meant to point to—that a single individual can succeed through their own work, with no help from anyone else—is completely untrue.
The expression "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was originally used to refer to a task that's impossible. It's believed to come from the German author Rudolf Erich Raspe, who wrote about a character who pulled himself out of a swamp by pulling his own hair.
I was in a large meeting a few months ago, and speaker lead an experiment. He held up different signs and if you agreed with the statements, you went the left side of the room. If you disagreed with the statement, you went to the right of the room. It was purely meant to show diversity of thought is a good thing. But one thing stood out to me.
He held up a sign that said, "I believe with hard work, anyone can be successful without help from others." Interesting, the demographics were pretty clear. Most of the white, straight men went to the left of the room. They looked proud that they had worked hard, and with no help from others, had achieved success.
On the right side of the room, it was full of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities. All people who knew that their success was done not in spite of their own doing, but because they got help somewhere along the way.
Here's a little story: The Monopoly Experiment
One experiment invited pairs of strangers to play a rigged Monopoly game where a coin flip designated one player rich and one poor. The rich players received twice as much money as their opponent to begin with; as they played the game, they got to roll two dice instead of one and move around the board twice as fast as their opponent; when they passed “Go,” they collected $200 to their opponent’s $100.
At the end of the game, when researchers asked the rich players why they had won the game, not one person attributed it to luck, revealing a fundamental bias that most humans share, When something good happens to you, we think about the things that we did that contributed to that success.
The researcher said, "I think across all people, it's universally true that there are things that you benefit from that you did not contribute to. There are things that you benefit from that you did not build; there are things that you benefit from that you did not make. You benefit from the roads that are built, from people that have helped you along the way, from the mentors that you accidentally found yourself in the same classroom with."
This isn't to say that hard work doesn't matter; it's just to say that it's not the only thing. No one pulls themselves up by their bootstraps. No one can.
You can't physically pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Don't believe it? Give it a go. Put on some boots, grab the straps, and try to pull yourself off the ground. It won't work because, well, gravity. Pulling yourself up requires relying on something—or someone—else. Everyone needs help.
But the idea the expression is now meant to point to—that a single individual can succeed through their own work, with no help from anyone else—is completely untrue.
The expression "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was originally used to refer to a task that's impossible. It's believed to come from the German author Rudolf Erich Raspe, who wrote about a character who pulled himself out of a swamp by pulling his own hair.
I was in a large meeting a few months ago, and speaker lead an experiment. He held up different signs and if you agreed with the statements, you went the left side of the room. If you disagreed with the statement, you went to the right of the room. It was purely meant to show diversity of thought is a good thing. But one thing stood out to me.
He held up a sign that said, "I believe with hard work, anyone can be successful without help from others." Interesting, the demographics were pretty clear. Most of the white, straight men went to the left of the room. They looked proud that they had worked hard, and with no help from others, had achieved success.
On the right side of the room, it was full of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities. All people who knew that their success was done not in spite of their own doing, but because they got help somewhere along the way.
Here's a little story: The Monopoly Experiment
One experiment invited pairs of strangers to play a rigged Monopoly game where a coin flip designated one player rich and one poor. The rich players received twice as much money as their opponent to begin with; as they played the game, they got to roll two dice instead of one and move around the board twice as fast as their opponent; when they passed “Go,” they collected $200 to their opponent’s $100.
At the end of the game, when researchers asked the rich players why they had won the game, not one person attributed it to luck, revealing a fundamental bias that most humans share, When something good happens to you, we think about the things that we did that contributed to that success.
The researcher said, "I think across all people, it's universally true that there are things that you benefit from that you did not contribute to. There are things that you benefit from that you did not build; there are things that you benefit from that you did not make. You benefit from the roads that are built, from people that have helped you along the way, from the mentors that you accidentally found yourself in the same classroom with."
This isn't to say that hard work doesn't matter; it's just to say that it's not the only thing. No one pulls themselves up by their bootstraps. No one can.
I recently resigned from a job. A good friend told me years ago, when you know it's time to go, you know. It was time.
Last night I wrote six thank you notes:
- To my dad who has patiently not given me advice, but gentle nudges and encouragement. He recently said, "Well I think we all keep learning until we die." I needed to hear it.
- To a mentor I've known for 25 years who took time over the last few years (since my sister's Steph's death) to check in on me via e-mail and have lunch from time to time. He kept reminding me that I was okay. I needed to hear it.
- To a female mentor I've know for 25 years who told me regarding my decision to leave a job, "It's not quitting. It's putting your personal and professional needs first." I needed to hear it.
- To a family member who I haven't talked to in years, who took my call immediately and gave me legal advice when I needed it. I needed to hear it.
- To a dear friend who said, "It's time for you to leave," when I explained my situation. With tears in both our eyes, I knew it was true. I needed to hear it.
- To someone I admire who saw my situation and helped me find a path to leave. I appreciate it more than they will ever know.
Who can you thank today? I bet if you reached out, the person would remember it for a long time. A little bit of thanks and acknowledgement that we are all here to help each other, can go a long way in life.
Stay tuned for big news about my next career move.