Survivorship bias is the mistake of focusing on those who "survived" a process and ignoring those who dropped out along the way, simply because we no longer see them. The classic example comes from World War II aircraft: engineers wanted to reinforce the spots where planes returned riddled with holes, until the statistician Abraham Wald pointed out they should reinforce the spots with no holes — that is where the planes that never came back had been hit.
We meet it constantly in daily life. We read the stories of entrepreneurs who dropped out of school and succeeded, but not the thousands who did the same and failed. We hear "he worked hard and made it", as if hard work always guaranteed the outcome.
Psychologically, this bias leads us to unfair conclusions about ourselves. If we did not achieve something despite our efforts, we feel we are lacking — without seeing the role of luck, timing and conditions that favoured the "survivors". Comparing ourselves to a handful of winners is almost always unjust.
Asking "who am I not seeing here?" protects us from oversimplifications and from harsh self-criticism. If comparison with others shakes you, explore our services.