Twenty years ago, I hopped onto a plane armed with a scholarship that covered all my tuition and living expenses. After my studies, I had the safety net of a job for six years to explore what I liked to do.

The point I'm making isn't that my life is so awesome. Instead, had any piece of this puzzle been out of place - for example, if I'd suffered poor health or incurred student debt from the start - things could have taken a very different turn. It would have taken much more than hard work to get my life back on track.