Nick Loper, online business owner and the host of the Side Hustle Nation show, recently published a podcast in which he candidly discussed his four common advantages and his specific top ten advantages.

Nick mentioned having good health as an advantage; but is not having good health a disadvantage? Tanya Hester, blogger of Our Next Life, decided to retire early because she would likely inherit her father’s genetic disorder which would limit her mobility. Her health issue became the reason for her FI pursuit.

Nick mentioned having a stable partner since teenage year as an advantage. However, the key for a successful partnership is to have a partner that is supportive of your goals while you are supportive of his/hers. That requires communication, negotiation, and open-mindedness.

Is being single a real disadvantage? Being single allows for freedom to pursue your goals without asking for permission or spending the time to convince your partner.

On FI online groups, for every single person who complains about pursuing FI while being single, I can find a married person who complains about not being able to get his/her partner on board to pursue FI.

Nick also mentioned having an ok-paying job that he didn’t really like, and it became the driver for his first online business. However, is having a high paying job a disadvantage? A high paying job combined with high savings rate is the simplest path to achieve FI. Or is having an ok-paying job that he likes a disadvantage? Someone who likes his or her job tends to stay longer and rises through the rank, thus generating more income.

This post isn’t meant to be critical of Nick’s podcast as the point of his podcast is to encourage audience to find their unfair advantages. I mean to point out that what one person can call an unfair advantage, another can call a disadvantage.

In a story in the self-help book Compound Effect, a set of twins grew up from a broken household. One becomes a successful entrepreneur; another one becomes a drug addict. When asked the reasons for their success/failure, they both responds, “with parents like that, how can I not be a success/a failure?”

Your unfair advantage is not a specific attribute but your mindset. You can let any attribute be the cause for your achieving FI or the reason of your failure to pursue FI.

Which way it is depends on your choice.