pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps
Impossible self-elevation metaphor
Pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps means achieving success through one's own efforts without outside help.
The phrase originally described an impossible physical act—you can't lift yourself by tugging your own boot straps—but now usually appears without irony: He pulled himself up by his bootstraps and built a company from nothing.
Critics invoke the original absurdity to challenge narratives that ignore structural advantages or luck.
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- driveOperate a vehicle
- idiomFixed phrase, opaque meaning
- initiativeSelf-directed action capacity
self-made · metaphor · perseverance · self-determination · overcoming adversity · starting from nothing · American Dream · rags to riches · resourcefulness · self-improvement · ambition · self-sufficiency · willpower · grit · colloquialism · adaptability · figurative speech · fortitude
pulling oneself up by one's bootstrapsborn with a silver spoon in one's mouth
Wealthy from the start
pulling oneself up by one's bootstrapsdependence
State of needing another
coasting · freeloading · passivity · learned helplessness · helplessness
pulling oneself up by one's bootstrapssystemic oppression
Institutionalized disadvantage of groups
structural inequality · glass ceiling · poverty trap · cycle of poverty
puller, pulling, oneself, straps, bootstrap, bootstraps, bootstrapped, bootstrapping