Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take

“Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.” Thus spoke Irving Berlin, the great composer who wrote the songs of a nation and captured in melody the rhythm of the human heart. In these words, he reveals a truth both humble and profound — that life is shaped less by circumstance than by spirit, less by what happens to us than by how we choose to face it. The storms will come, as they always do, but it is not the tempest that determines our fate — it is the sailor’s courage and the steadiness of his hand upon the helm.

Berlin’s wisdom was not born in comfort, but in struggle. He was a poor immigrant boy from Russia, who came to America with nothing but his dreams. He could not read music, and yet he became one of the greatest songwriters in history. He knew poverty, loss, and heartbreak, yet he refused to be defeated by them. His life was proof that one’s attitude, not one’s environment, is the true sculptor of destiny. To him, success was not a gift of fortune but a creation of the mind — an act of resilience, of seeing light even in the midst of shadow. And so he taught that life, in its truest sense, is not what happens around you, but what awakens within you.

The ancients, too, knew this truth. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus, born a slave, said much the same: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” This idea has echoed through every age, for it is the cornerstone of wisdom — that perception is power. The same event that breaks one man may build another; the same fire that consumes straw tempers steel. Thus, Berlin’s words are a modern echo of an eternal principle: that the soul’s strength is revealed not in its control of life, but in its response to it.

History gives us endless testimony to this truth. Consider the story of Helen Keller, who, though born blind and deaf, rose to become one of the most inspiring voices of her time. She could have surrendered to despair, believing her world to be forever dark and silent. But she chose instead to fill her life with purpose and learning, guided by the gentle hand of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Keller’s world became not a prison, but a vast landscape of wonder. Her life embodied Berlin’s teaching — for her circumstances were harsh, yet her spirit transformed them into triumph.

To understand Berlin’s quote is to see that life’s meaning is found in perspective. The “10 percent” of life that we can make — our choices, our actions, our plans — is indeed small when compared to the “90 percent” that we cannot control — chance, change, loss, and the passing of time. Yet it is that 90 percent, the unpredictable and the uncontrollable, that becomes our greatest teacher. When the winds shift against us, when the road twists where we did not plan, we are given the sacred opportunity to shape our response — to choose patience instead of bitterness, faith instead of fear, gratitude instead of grief.

Berlin’s words call us to master the art of acceptance, not as surrender, but as strength. Life will never bend perfectly to our will; its beauty lies in its unpredictability. To “take it well” means to walk with grace through uncertainty, to greet both joy and sorrow with balance, and to find meaning in every season. This is not weakness — it is wisdom. It is the strength of those who endure without hardening, who love without expecting, and who rise each time the world knocks them down.

So, my child, remember this lesson as you walk the path of days: you cannot always make life as you wish it to be, but you can always choose how to meet it. Do not waste your spirit fighting what cannot be changed; instead, turn inward and master yourself. When the world tests you, smile gently and say, “This too shall teach me.” Be calm in victory, humble in loss, and steadfast in both. For happiness is not the absence of struggle, but the power to find peace within it.

In the end, Irving Berlin’s truth is both simple and divine: life is not measured by circumstance, but by character. It is a mirror that reflects not what it gives, but what we bring to it. Make your ten percent with care — your work, your dreams, your love — but take your ninety percent with courage and grace. For in how you take it lies the music of your soul, and when you master that, you will, like Berlin himself, turn the trials of existence into a timeless song.