Chapter One Who Can I Blame? You can blame anybody you want to, actually, but you're probably lying. Are you shaped by nature or by nurture? It doesn't matter, because you control neither of them. However, you can choose how to react to them. That's how you get past fatalistic victim thinking and start living in earnest. Inertia may be (or seem) easier, but it's never as satisfying. Whatever it is, own it. If you don't own it, you can't change it. Here's something from The Chronicles of a Lost Soul, which I wrote over 30 years ago: All that we are is the result of what we have thought. Excuses such as religion, race, heredity and upbringing are exactly that - excuses. What we are comes from what we think. So we should learn how to think. The wise man will neither swallow everything blindly nor rebel for the mere sake of rebellion. He will strive to discriminate, to separate the wheat from the chaff, to decide for himself. Obviously, there is a shortage of wise men.