Do success and happiness depend on the choices people make rather than on factors beyond their control?

"Winning provides happiness but losing provides wisdom" -Neil Patel-
Being successful in a specific task can be a great feeling and these kinds of outcomes does influence our life's when making decisions. Although sometimes it's good to lose as well, you have to learn from your mistakes so that way in the future it can be prevented from happening again. No one's perfect and their is going to come to a point where you're going to have to make decisions, and that's a risk that has to be done. Don't expect the outcome to be a good thing because theirs always surprises in life, this is when the experience in losing comes to play. Losing is also a tool/strategy that can be used to also make decisions. Win or lose you still have a positive outcome because now you know what's right and what's wrong.

Can books and stories about characters & events that are not real teach us anything useful?

     As kids we read fiction books that teach us lessons in life for example Little Red Riding Hood. Also princess stories, princess stories are not just about a girl who meets her Prince Charming. Stories such as The Little Mermaid. In a kids point of view, kids view these stories as entertainment or a bed time story but as we grow up and face real world problems we start to begin connecting books with real life situations, which can also help us to even deal with them as well. Books like The Little Red Riding Hood teaches us of being careful on whom to trust, as well as to think critically. This connects to real life situations such as maintaining yourself away from strangers or avoiding you from ever being out smarted. Stories like princesses, focus more on shaping your way of living. For example The Little Mermaid, encourages us to try new things and discover outside their comfort zone every once in a while. There are many more other stories that all come together to prepare people from real life situations. The fact that authors use their fictional books as early prepareness for kids is a very smart idea because this helps us think critically on our decisions that we take later on in life.