Scott Galloway quotes his immigrant dad as saying "America is a hard place to be stupid."
It should be obvious that you need to work hard and work hard on the right thing.
For example you can "work hard" to get a degree which is not valuable and make no economic gain, or you can work hard to get an engineering degree and go from poverty to 1% in a few years.
I met an immigrant Uber driver who had got a janitorial job at a university, because it allowed him to go to business school for free. He worked "as hard" as any other janitor who Ubered on the side, but at the end of it he'll walk away with a Columbia MBA. I am not worried about this guys' ability to become wealthy.
But you do need to use your brain and hustle a bit if you want to go from nothing to something. This is why immigrant can do it - because they come to the US knowing they have to do it.
It should be obvious that you need to work hard and work hard on the right thing.
For example you can "work hard" to get a degree which is not valuable and make no economic gain, or you can work hard to get an engineering degree and go from poverty to 1% in a few years.
I met an immigrant Uber driver who had got a janitorial job at a university, because it allowed him to go to business school for free. He worked "as hard" as any other janitor who Ubered on the side, but at the end of it he'll walk away with a Columbia MBA. I am not worried about this guys' ability to become wealthy.
But you do need to use your brain and hustle a bit if you want to go from nothing to something. This is why immigrant can do it - because they come to the US knowing they have to do it.