10 Birth Lottery Videos to Realize Your Luck in Life

I finally compiled all my favorite birth lottery videos in one place. If you can only watch a few, I recommend starting with #1, #3, #4.

For much more on the lottery of birth, check out these posts:

🔒 Premium members also have access to the companion posts:

· Lottery of Birth Synthesis: How to See Yourself and the World Drastically Differently (+ Infographic)

· Behind the Scenes: Dissecting my own Lottery of Birth Ticket

10 Birth Lottery Videos to Realize Your Luck in Life

1. Creating Freedom: Raoul Martinez (TEDx Talk)

“We do not choose to exist. We do not choose what environment we grow up in. The people we become, the lives that we lead, the beliefs and values that we learn to hold, owe much to the lottery of our birth.” —Raoul Martinez

2. Creating Freedom: Raoul Martinez (Full Documentary)

“I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me to question.”—Raoul Martinez

For those who watched the TEDx Talk above and want more, here’s the full documentary:

3. The Ovarian Lottery: Warren Buffett

“No great credit to me, I was just lucky at birth … I shouldn’t delude myself into thinking I’m some superior individual because of that.” — Warren Buffett

4. The Lottery of Life: Christina Rickardsson (TEDx Talk)

“We all carry a story. The content of our story depends on several factors: when we were born, where we were born, to what culture and religion, the color of our skin, gender, and of course, what social class we are born into. These choices have already been made for us, and we have no power, no control, over them—in this we are all equal. I call it the lottery of life … Try to understand that what you have been given is something rare. Your ticket is worth so much. And, when you can help someone that needs it, don’t turn your back.” — Christina Rickardsson

5. Running, Luck, & the Ovarian Lottery: Mark Sutcliffe (TEDx Talk)

“There’s a saying in running that if you want to go fast, the very first thing that you have to do is choose the right parents … Running has taught me that the single greatest factor in my life has not been hard work, it has been luck. And, most of that good fortune was given to me before I was even born … I won the lottery the day that I was born. I didn’t get handed a check for a million dollars, but I was given an opportunity that was worth at least that much … The odds of doing well aren’t the same for everyone.” —Mark Sutcliffe

6. The Birth Lottery Does Not Define You: Yasmine Mustafa (TEDx Talk)

“What is the birth lottery? It’s the randomness of our starting point—of being born into a set of traits and circumstances that shape the opportunities that we have in life.” —Yasmine Mustafa

7. Looks aren’t everything; believe me, I’m a model: Cameron Russell (TED Talk)

“The real way that I became a model is I won a genetic lottery, and I am the recipient of a legacy. For the past few centuries, we have defined beauty not just as health, and youth, and symmetry—that we’re biologically programmed to admire—but also as tall, slender figures, femininity, and white skin. This is a legacy that was built for me, and it’s a legacy that I’ve been cashing out on … In 2007, a very inspired NYU Ph.D. student counted all the models on the runway—every single one that was hired—and of the 677 models that were hired, only 27, or less than 4%, were non-white … Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up. It’s out of your control … If there’s a takeaway to this talk, I hope it’s that we all feel more comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures.” —Cameron Russell

8. Morality of Winning the Birth Lottery: Gilad Tanay (TEDx Talk)

“As somebody who works in moral philosophy, I ask myself, ‘What is the moral significance of having won an unfair lottery?’ And, the answer I’ve come very strongly to believe is that winning an unfair lottery generates a special kind of moral duty to make use of your luck, to the best of your ability, to change the terms of the lottery—to make it more fair and to make the role of those factors which are completely not up to your control much less of a determining force in the life of people in the world.” —Gilad Tanay

9. How to Transcend the Lottery of Birth: Stephanie Lampkin (TEDx Talk)

“We’ve become less ‘the land of opportunity’ and more ‘the lottery of birth’ … We have to eliminate this lottery of birth. If you can’t control your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, or the family income you were born in, it should not limit how you can change the world.” —Stephanie Lampkin