Every decision that you make should be a vote towards the person you want to become. Individuals in positions of power were not merely handed these positions; and if they were, it doesn’t necessarily negate the fact that you have it within all of your faculties to obtain a higher status.

“Certainly, genetic differences matter. Some people’s genes dispose them to be unusually ambitious, or clever, or athletic, or artistic, or various other things— including unusually rich in serotonin. But these traits depend, for their flowering, on the environment (and sometimes on each other), and their eventual translation into status can rest heavily on chance. No one is born to lead, and no one is born to follow.” – The Moral Animal by Richard Wright

There are those who seem to dominate whatever arena they do with a confidence that suggests that they were born with it. And to some degree, they were; but that confidence that they exude so effortlessly would have been isolated and buried had they not been brought up a certain way or had been exposed to certain life-changing environments that seemingly revealed themselves through chance.

“And to the extent that some people are born with a leg up in the race (as they surely are), that birthright probably lies at least as much in cultural as in genetic advantage. In any event, there are good Darwinian reasons to believe that everyone is born with the capacity for high serotonin—with the equipment to function as a high-status primate given a social setting conducive to their ascent.” – The Moral Animal by Richard Wright

If the next argument, then, is to posit that “unfortunate” social settings are what is holding back your genetic “birthright” (which we all have with our own little quirks) from flourishing, I doubt your plight, barring severe medical deficiencies (which pose their own examples), is as dire as an actual slave.

Frederick Douglass was born a slave and grew up one. He escaped and became the greatest voice for the abolition of slavery by seizing upon the opportunity to read. He learned letters through his “mistress” (slaveholder’s wife); and when threatened to stop, he stole bread to give to local “poor little white boys” who gave him reading lessons in secret. Douglass later in life reflecting, credited them substantially for being who he was. His natural inclination for the pursuit of knowledge, fostered by a very specific social context, created the figure that has transcended his time.

Self-made men are the men who, under peculiar difficulties and without ordinary help of favoring circumstances, have attained knowledge, usefulness, power and position and have learned from themselves the best uses to which life can be put in this world, and in the exercise of these uses to build up worthy character." - Self Made Men, speech given by Frederick Douglass

This is an extreme circumstance used to illustrate that anyone with the correct mindset and creativity can efficiently climb the social ladder. This is traditionally referred to as “purpose” or “mission,” with the caveat that your particular situation can come to serve a niche space that places you in a position of power. That power doesn’t have to be great, but it does imply your leadership that was divinely manifested by you.