No One Gave Me Anything

No One Gave Me Anything

No one gave me anything that I did not work to get,
Every dollar earned in sweat and I have got no debt,
To luck or to connection or to who my father knew,
I built this from the absolute zero of the new.

No one gave me anything, I started with the empty hand,
No one gave me anything, I built it on the sand,
And the sand became concrete when I worked it long enough,
No one gave me anything and that is why it holds up tough.

I know the argument that no one builds alone,
I know the roads were public and the market was a loan,
From the civic structure that exists before the man,
I know all that and I still built according to my plan.

The pride is not in claiming I owe nothing to the world,
The pride is in the specific effort that I hurled,
Against the wall of difficulty every single year,
No one gave me anything is not resentment, it is clear.