Yes, we need to be humble, I know people who were smart, but they are now in a mess, mostly because they lacked school fees. Cancer also taught me that health we have is fickle - I had been lucky to be born in a family nobody got sick for years - my father was so cocky because his parents and uncles - siblings - nobody was ever sick - then worse cancer hit him and he had six months - and cancer was discovered on my sister burial. This life is crazy. One minute you're winning - next minute you're losing. One minute in Karen - next minute dead.
Yes. The answer I have found is to just be adaptable and to be willing to change whenever life's circumstances smack you in the face. Don't whine, don't drown in your sorrows, just find a way to adapt, change and do you want you need to do. E.g. Many kenyans left the country when the economy collapsed for their own economic survival. Some refused to leave and were destroyed economically and ended up becoming alcoholics.
Willingness to Change is essential in this unpredictable life.