What many people see as 'fate', can be reinterpreted as 'Genetics' and 'Environmental conditions' of a person, and in ways, fate is just a way to encapsulate that idea in layman's terms.
Humans are animals. Just like any animal, how 'successful' they become is affected by their genetic makeup and the conditions they live in. That 'success' could be defined in many ways, from 'being able to run faster' for a horse, to 'having lots of money' for a human. But if you look at it in strictly biological terms, 'success' is ultimately either increasing the probability of survival or reproduction.
Humans are exceptional creatures because they have free will. What is meant by free will? One could say free will is 'being able to go against the whim of your genetics and environment'. For example, when a person is on a diet, they use their willpower slim down. When people exercise free will, they oppose the circumstances imposed on them by their genetics and environment.
Let us use the previous example of a fat guy slimming down. His genes program his body to feel painful hunger when his belly is empty. If he were any other non-intelligent animal, he would go look for some chow, but fat guy is a human and knows better than that. Later, he becomes thin, and girls generally prefer skinny men as partners, increasing that man's probability for reproduction.
However, one could argue that the man ultimately does not exercise free will. One, he slims down with the purpose of increasing his probabilities of reproduction, which is a desire encoded in our genes. Two, the intelligence and information that gives him his free will, is itself encoded in our genes, a product of millions of years of evolution. In other words, his free will is imperfect.
What constitutes perfect free will, then? One could say being completely freed from the tendancies that our genes impose on us. If the beforementioned fat man had perfect free will, he would be just as likely to leap off a cliff or eat his own leg, as he would diet. To us, perfect free will is meaningless or stupid. The concept of doing something that does not increase our chances of survival or reproduction is incomprehensible to us. The ultimate cause of free will imposes restrictions on us which help us survive- otherwise we would have been wiped out by stupid things such as leaping off cliffs long, long ago.
Humans have so much potential in them, but don't notice or don't bother to work on it. Donald Trump, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan and the average person have fairly similar genes. Yet, the difference in success between the average person and the first three is gigantic. Yes, their environment had a part to play in their success, but it was largely how well they exercised free will that led to their success. You could be as rich, smart or strong as you wish to be, so long as you had enough discipline to do it.
