Fairness requires understanding what people received before comparing what they produced.

Output is always a mix of effort and inheritance: the teaching, the money, the connections, the health, the absence of crises. Comparing results without accounting for inputs turns luck into virtue and hardship into failure. It also produces bad decisions, because you end up rewarding the starting position rather than the contribution.

When you assess someone’s performance, including your own, ask what they began with. Not to excuse everything, only to see clearly what was actually added. Someone who moved a difficult situation a short distance may have done more work than someone who coasted a favorable one a long way.