Catalyst as far as what? If you mean to go back to school, it was being generally unhappy with my current trajectory in life. I saw myself being largely irrelevant, with no happiness drawn from the experience. If you mean catalyst for this particular path it all comes down to giving people second chances. It's easy to be written off on the lower end of the ladder. Sometimes it is undeserving. Sometimes you are put in survival mode and make really poor decisions. Although it's always hard to choose when the options are between bad and worse.

Meritocracy is the aim right?