Yesterday I wrote a post talking about the significant role luck plays in all of our lives. One thing I omitted because it felt somewhat off point is the role that support, broadly defined, plays in our lives. Patrick O’Shaugnessy asks each of his guests near the end of each episode of his excellent podcast Invest Like the Best: “What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?”

Not surprisingly, the answers vary. Many people, understandably, note the role their parents or spouse has played in their lives. This small act of flipping through the Rolodex of your life is a useful experience because it helps highlight the idea that we never get where we are based solely on our own merits.

This preface is really just prelude, nee excuse, to highlight three quotes on this topic that I came across recently:

We have a Declaration of Independence, but we also need a Declaration of Interdependence:

No one succeeds alone, gains freedom alone, or finds joy alone.

Our lives, liberties, and happiness are intertwined.#TuesdayThoughts

— Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) August 21, 2018

and:

If you are successful, it’s almost always because some people went out of their way to help you. You have a moral obligation to pay it forward.

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 21, 2018

And from a recent post by my friend Tom Brakke:

Perhaps you’ve had a parent or a sibling or a friend or a mentor or (as I have) a spouse who has been there, shining that light when the storms raged around you, so that you could get home.

Just think if we all did that for each other.

Paying it forward is not a new concept. But it is worth keeping top of mind as we traverse through this life.