[coldtea]

>here's an old adage that successful people surround themselves with success. It's all about cohort - if you don't have other friends who are pushing themselves the way you are, it will be very, very, hard.

Or, you know, riches come to riches, which amount to the same thing.

People born in slums don't have as many changes to "surround themselves with success". For one, they wouldn't be welcome by most successful people.