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However, everyone's circumstances are different. I have a friend whose kids' college fund was wiped out by emergency, and unanticipated, medical bills. I know some people who've had to pay for care for aging parents. I've known people whose businesses have gone belly up and have had to declare bankruptcy. If you're one of the lucky ones who's had everything break right for you, that's great. But don't sit on your high horse and assume that because everything's worked out for you then it's just as easy for everyone else to do.

I know many people who have had these things happen to them, and who really hit the bottom, sometimes more than once and late in life more often than not. The difference is that most of these people did not whine about or think for a minute that they were victims of poor luck or The Man. Instead, they dusted themselves off and started over, applying lessons learned from prior bad experiences, and doing their best to work smarter and harder.

No one ever promised that life would be easy, or that serious challenges and very difficult choices would not occur. It makes ill when people just breakdown and abdicate life at the first sign of true hardship -- it betrays a weakness of basic character. I would go as far as to say that if you have not had at least one or two of these "rock bottom" experiences in your life, you have not really lived.