It's Who You Know, Not Just What You Know

After watching a couple friends with good connections get things done more than the others, I'm starting to come to that conclusion. One is in South Africa, while I'm still stuck in this third-world country. And another got a lot of interesting things... I don't like this, but people help their friends -- it's the way of the world, and I'd probably be stupid to ignore it and keep working by myself... Work may well be more important than connections in good environments, but the latter is always an advantage, big or small, isn't it?

Is this what growing up is, when you realize that many things in the world are not ideal, and that you will go along rather than try to make things better?