In response to my friend Yasmine’s inquiry… what does the birth lottery mean to you?  She will be speaking of this at the TedXPhilly event.

Sometimes I like to think of life as a “Sims” video game. You wake up in a given home with given family and friends, a certain set of credentials, certain physical attributes. But as Mr. B says – what you do with that is your choice. You can wake up as super-man and choose to sit on the sofa and play video games all day. Or you can wake up as quadrapalegic and get on WHYY to run a popular radio program (nod to Dr. Dan Gottlieb) . As a guy who raised money through VCs, I saw first-hand how biased people are and how quickly they draw judgments about you from your skin color, the neighborhood you grew up in, your language skills and your accent. For me, I had a lot going for me – but growing up in Levittown was a strike against my pedigree (believe it or not I was told this by a VC once) – sometimes I wished I had had braces to staighten my teeth better… little crap like that removes barriers. But you can overcome all of these by not taking things pesonally, nurturing strength of spirit, choosing a mission and doubling down each day on the bets you made yesterday that paid off. Also – try to remove the power of the birth lottery by breaking the cycle of instant judgment. Try to stop putting people in boxes. Try to stop filling in the blanks when you see or hear someone fro the first time. Ask yourself, “do I really know what is in this person’s soul?” – and, if not, keep digging. Good luck!