some very good thoughts presented up there. this has been said on this thread and i am repeating it, no one ever made you, it was you and your hard work that took you right up there, choice is ours to make, do we look at the US to take us there or do we make our own way, i prefer the latter.
it is our journey to make, so will be the sweetness of successes and failures that we encounter (i use the term sweetness with failure because we stand to learn how to better it the next time we do it), least we look for external help but look with in which is our biggest strength.
i prefer my struggle alone rather than someone shout back at me tomorrow and say, "hey where you are, is all because of me"!