Farmergeorge said "That is true but the point is that our family initially started with nothing like many others.
A family business is the same as any other. Those that don’t pull their weight get fired.
Without a business to buy into I would have bought our neighbours smaller property, worked that and continued to work as a mechanic. You make your own luck and it isn’t always easy "
Well, here's a story to muddy the waters a bit. We can achieve lots with a little hard work, but also with a little hand up.
Both my mother's parents were born on farms in rural Manitoba, in the Interlake and east of Lake Winnipeg respectively . Why? Because their parents immigrated to Canada under the Dominion Land Act.
The Act, enacted in 1872, opened up the West for settlement, with Treaties 1 and 2 having recently been signed. It was created by the MacDonald government, a Conservative. It was ultimately championed and expanded by Sir Clifford Sifton, a Liberal.
Under the Act, recent and new immigrants were given the opportunity to earn a quarter section of land basically for free except for their hard labour - they had to clear a certain amount of land, build a residence, and live on the land at least 6 months of the year.
So many families came, including mine. They came with nothing, and had nothing to lose. The lands my family were assigned are especially hard - not like the land out here, but rocky and wooded terrain that was challenging to break and clear. But their sheer determination made it work, and they earned their land patents and carved a life for themselves here.
Did they work hard? Yes. Did they succeed by their hard work alone? No. They essentially took a government handout to the tune of a quarter section of land.
Incidentally, one of those farms is still in the family. My mother's cousin farms near Fisher Branch, and lives in the house originally built by my great-grandfather. It's been in the family since 1911.