Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930)

According to the CIA Factbook the 2013 estimates on infant mortality rates per 1000 births was, in Mali, 106.49 and in Australia 4.49.  From the same source at the time of birth a baby born in Mali has a life expectancy of 54.55 years, Australian’s have a life expectancy of 81.98 years.  On the 21st of November 2012 the Economist published an article “the lottery of life, where to be born in 2013” which appears in the 2013 print edition.  The ‘lottery of life’ refers to a variable which is out of any persons control, the place and time in which you are born.  It is fair to say that these circumstances can greatly impact the quality of life and opportunities a person receives.  When I was born in Melbourne Australia, in 1994, I was given a golden ticket to life.  I have been raised and educated in a way that I believe and the people around me, are capable of great things.  However if all circumstances were the same, except for the country of my birth – I may not believe the same thing, I would not have a world of opportunity at my feet.

https://www.cia.gov/index.html
http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life