Self made is a misnomer.
Self made?!
YOU WERE MADE BY YOUR MUM AND DAD!!
You were raised by them, propped up on your two feet, given an education, books, pens, bats, uniforms were handed out, bills were paid. You had extra curricular ambitions - you wanted to act, sing, dance, play cricket, table tennis, basketball, soccer, swim. Guess who paid the tuition, who took you to practice, bought you gear.
They made you fly. They made you soar.
Who made your breakfast, lunch and dinner, bought you clothes, socks, shoes, toys, soaps, shampoos, conditioners.
Who got you those braces, your cellphone, cars, trips.
Oh that's FAMILY.
And yes, there are families where there is torment, sacrifices are made, you are forced to wrestle with your reality on a daily basis - a fight to survive, to maintain sanity.
But as sad as this is, it still made you who are you today.
Some people got it made, others got mad and made lemonades.
Yes, you chose a lot of your battles, spent time in preparation, studied, put in the hours, a lot of nights of winning, a lot of nights of suffering alone, living 24*7 with the consequences of your decisions, enjoying the highs and lows on this rollercoaster of life.
Yes, you deserve some credit sure.
The ego wants to believe you did it all - fought the system, the powers that didn't let you succeed, luck, politics, influence - so when you do succeed you wanna take the cake and eat it too.
But you had help along the way - at every single step.
The phrase, have your cake and eat it too never really made sense to me.
You got yourself a cake and you SHARE it.
You share that cake with your friends, family, people that work at your office, your neighbours, etc.
In life, your cake goes to the teachers who taught you right from wrong, your girlfriend who left you when you were too dumb, too lazy to go chase your dreams, the cab guy who made sure you reach home amidst rallying and protests, the friends who let you stay with them while you go chase your dreams, the casting guy who really believed and fought for you, the producer you met at Prithvi or the one that made you believe in your voice, your compositions, your lyrics, your co-actor that sat you down when you were struggling to get a handle on your character, the assistant director that sees you holding your own when everyone's ganging up on you and acknowledges that.
(I wouldn't have made it till here without someone inventing the word 'made')
And they all get the cake
Unless you put in the work and find yourself at the right place at the right time, obviously things won't move in the desired direction.
So you were propelled by angels to that place and everything else fell into place for you to land at THE PLACE.
So keep collecting those angels by being an angel to other people (it's not that hard. ping me and I'll tell you), stay focussed, stay persistent, learn your lessons, keep at it and be grateful for being able to do what you do.