Make a dent on your circumstances

When Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince, he intended it as a guide to the Medici family, who led Florence, Italy. While many leaders were inclined towards prudence, yielding towards the fortunes, conditions, and narratives that they believed they were destined towards, Machiavelli believed there was a more useful way to think about it. He writes: “When I have thought about this sometimes, I have been in some part inclined to their opinion. Nonetheless, so that our free will not be eliminated, I judge that it might be true that fortune is arbiter of half our actions, but also that she leaves the other half, or close to it, for us to govern.” In Be Like the Fox, Erica Benner elaborates on Machiavelli’s statement, noting that there is no final word on the balance between fortune and free will, or nature and nurture. Still, even if hypothetically fortune had 99% influence and free will only 1% or less, that percentage leaves room for a person to decide to act or not to act; or as Benner…