(often used attributively)Used to convey that one has achieved success and that others should be able to as well regardless of ability, background, or circumstances.
1991 December 15, Kathyrin E. Diaz, “Telling Fortune”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 22, page 7:
Although the Wofford quote ["We don't need affirmative action — we're already here"] may have been a well-intended attempt to demonstrate that gay people can make it, it tends to reflect an "I got mine, too bad about you" sentiment reminiscent of Clarence Thomas.
2008, Bambi Higgins, “The Black Situation Comedy”, in Todd Boyd, editor, African Americans and Popular Culture[1], page 227:
Strutting with pride over his nouveau-riche status, George [Jefferson of The Jeffersons] embodied and employed the trickle-down economic values of Reagan-era America, as well as an "I got mine," up-by-your-bootstraps ideology that was simultaneously mocked and celebrated in this version of a social sitcom.
2010, Phil Edmonston, Lemon-Aid New Cars and Trucks 2010[2], page 341:
BMWs have excellent road manners, depreciate slowly, and have an “I got mine!” cachet that buyers find hard to resist.
2014, Roger Lee Ray, Progressive Faith and Practice: Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By, unnumbered page:
Rand liked to call her view “objectivism” though some liken it to libertarianism. It reminds me more of an “I got mine” philosophy than of anything else. Most of us live in a world somewhere between the extremes of absolute selfishness and absolute self-abnegation.
