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Reader question: Please explain “head start” in this sentence: He would have been successful even without the head start he’d got in life. My comments: First of all, head start means an early start. Here, the speaker believes “he” would have been successful even if he was not given the head start he’d got in life. Head start in life? What’s that exactly? This reminds me of the first passages of The Great Gatsby, one of America’s best books by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the beginning of the book, Nick Carraway narrates: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” What advantages exactly? Riches. Nick was born into a rich family. In our example, you can make a generalization that the person being spoken of has had some, if not all of these following advantages. He was born into a rich family. He went to good schools. He got a good job, etc and so forth. In other words, he’s had the head start, a term originally from the game of horse racing. In horse racing, if a horse is allowed to begin the race a head (length) in front of others at the starting gate, he has the head start (in fact, his head will stick out of the starting stalls). Similarly if this horse is allowed a full body length or 10 or 20 yards then he has a head start of a (full body) length or 10 or 20 yards. | 
