Mumbai student explores whether success can truly be considered “deserved” in an essay examining genetics, upbringing, free will and the philosophy of merit
Mumbai, India Myra Jhawar, a student of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, has been named the First Prize Winner of The FORGE Essay Competition, organised by Career Discovery, for her thought-provoking philosophical essay, “The Meritocracy Trap: If our talents are the result of genetics and upbringing, can anyone truly ‘deserve’ their success?”
The competition received 10,156 entries from participants across more than 38 countries, making Myra’s achievement a notable accomplishment in a truly global field of young writers.
In her winning submission, Myra takes on one of the most fundamental questions surrounding achievement and fairness: to what extent can individuals claim moral credit for their success when so much of what shapes them, from their abilities to their upbringing and circumstances is beyond their control?
Rather than treating success simply as the product of hard work, Myra examines the complex relationship between talent, effort, opportunity, luck and social circumstances.
Challenging the Idea of Merit
The essay opens with an unusual metaphor: a map.
Myra describes a map as an object that creates the illusion that a journey was always predictable, that once a destination has been reached, the path appears obvious in hindsight. She uses this idea to examine how society looks at successful individuals.
Entrepreneurs, athletes and scientists are often portrayed retrospectively as though their achievements were the inevitable result of talent and determination. Myra challenges this assumption by pointing to the countless variables that precede achievement: genetics, family circumstances, neighbourhoods, education, historical timing and opportunities that individuals never chose for themselves.
She argues that this is where meritocracy becomes particularly complicated.
If people’s talents and many of the circumstances that allow those talents to flourish are inherited or accidental, Myra asks, what exactly do we mean when we say someone “deserves” their success?
Bringing Philosophy Into a Modern Debate
The essay draws on the ideas of several major philosophers and thinkers, including John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Aristotle, Harry Frankfurt and Michael Sandel, while also examining psychologist Melvin Lerner’s work on the belief in a just world.
One of the essay’s strengths is that Myra does not simply present an argument against meritocracy. She actively considers the strongest arguments on the other side.
Drawing on Aristotle, she acknowledges the importance of effort and argues that natural ability alone cannot explain achievement. She then examines Harry Frankfurt’s argument that individuals can exercise genuine agency even when their abilities and circumstances were not entirely chosen.
Myra ultimately pushes the question one step further: if even our capacity for discipline, resilience and perseverance can be influenced by upbringing and circumstance, where does individual “desert” begin and end?
She then introduces another variable the society and historical period in which a person happens to live.
A particular talent may be extraordinarily valuable in one era and almost irrelevant in another. In Myra’s example, an individual with exceptional technological ability could possess the same intellectual capacity centuries ago but have no technological infrastructure through which that ability could be expressed.
This leads her to a broader observation: success is not determined solely by what an individual can do, but also by what society happens to value.
Beyond Winning and Losing
Myra’s argument ultimately moves beyond whether meritocracy is philosophically defensible. She explores why people continue to believe so strongly that individuals get what they deserve.
Drawing on Lerner’s concept of the “just-world” belief, she suggests that believing success is earned and failure is deserved can provide psychological comfort in a world where outcomes are often shaped by circumstances outside individual control.
For Myra, recognising these forces does not mean that effort is meaningless.
Instead, she makes a distinction between admiring what someone has achieved and concluding that they therefore deserve every advantage associated with that achievement.
Her essay concludes with a call for greater humility in how society views both success and failure. Rather than seeing successful people as entirely self-made or those who struggle as responsible for their circumstances, Myra argues for recognising the complex and often invisible factors that shape every individual’s journey.
A Young Voice Engaging With Complex Questions
Myra’s first-prize achievement at The FORGE Essay Competition highlights her ability to engage with an abstract philosophical question while connecting it to questions of inequality, opportunity, responsibility and human agency.
Her essay demonstrates an approach to writing that goes beyond presenting a straightforward opinion. It builds an argument, considers opposing perspectives, engages with established philosophical thought and ultimately arrives at a nuanced position of its own.
For a student, tackling a question as fundamental as whether human beings can truly “deserve” their success represents an ambitious intellectual exercise and one that Myra has approached with both philosophical curiosity and critical reasoning.
Her recognition as the First Prize Winner of The FORGE Essay Competition, selected from 10,156 participants representing more than 38 countries across seven continents, marks an important achievement in her academic and intellectual journey. It also reflects the value of encouraging young students to question assumptions, engage deeply with ideas and develop original perspectives on complex issues.