Share Your Insight: Do We Create Our Own Luck?

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT -- June 13, 2012 at 8:29 AM EDT

Share Your Insight: Do We Create Our Own Luck?

Updated, 6:40 p.m.

In author Michael Lewis' speech at a Princeton University Baccalaureate ceremony earlier this month, he said, "You owe a debt, not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky."

Lewis' writing career and fame were more a product of fortune than anything else, he said.

Watch Michael Lewis' speech:

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust offered a similar take in her commencement address, telling graduates, "Good fortune is not something we have a right to, but something given to us that we have no claim on."

(Worth noting -- both Ivy League campuses saw organized Occupy movements over the last year. Occupy Princeton did not seem impressed by Lewis.)

Also making waves of late, the Wellesley High School speech from David McCullough Jr. The bottom line to grads: you're not special.

Watch:

Jeffrey Brown will be speaking with Lewis on the PBS NewsHour. Weigh in with your thoughts by filling out this Public Insight Network query. Here are some of the responses we've received so far.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.