Is it idleness or lack of opportunity?

I often wonder whether people who are unsuccessful in life blame the circumstances around them for their lack of success. Or they blame the lack of opportunity for their lack of progress.

Or are they merely suffering from idleness, where they see the opportunities, but just choose to do absolutely nothing to gain advantage from those opportunities?

Or even worse, don’t even “see” the opportunities when they appear in the first place, by turning a blind eye?

I have long wondered this because I have been fortunate to run several businesses in different countries over the years and had to employ people in various capacities.

Even when opportunities are simple, a certain demographic of people laments that the option is not for them, even though they are supposedly looking for work.

Granted you don’t often know what is going on in people’s personal lives to give this sort of response. However, if they don’t “choose” to take the opportunities when they appear, they really should refrain from moaning about the lack of opportunity.

This, in my opinion, is probably the worst element of all. Moaning about not taking an opportunity and then belittling or complaining there are no opportunities when they haven’t even “tried”.

People from less well-off backgrounds, not only grasp opportunities when they appear but seem to excel in them, making them work for them. This therefore allows them more life choices that were closed to them previously.

This type of example then demonstrates to me that the opportunity is not at fault nor the potential lack of opportunity as some have lamented.

Instead, it is always the people who have the wrong attitude towards opportunity in the first place. And those that lament, are the ones who I probably have an issue with the most.

So what do you think? Do you agree? Or is lack of opportunity the real reason?