Luck and privilege are simply much, much bigger influences on success than one’s work ethic. It’s been demonstrated time and time again in studies that the circumstances of your birth and your access to things like quality schooling/opportunities are much better indicators of life outcomes than anything else, including intelligence or work ethic. Most successful people in fact do come from privilege or generational wealth. Poor people overwhelmingly stay poor while rich people overwhelmingly stay wealthy or get richer. Kids who are cutting class or failing school are overwhelming less well off or are otherwise disadvantaged compared to kids who excel. My school didn’t even let us cut class because they’d call our parents and suspend us if we did it. Again, statistics show that higher household income and living in a wealthier area are the biggest indicators of a child’s future academic success. Outliers exist of course, but these are factual realities. I did my best in school and got a masters degree but I’m not under any illusions that my hard work was what gave me the edge over anyone. I’m well aware that between my white privlege, being born in Europe to middle class parents, getting an education in America, and having a safe, thoughtful environment around me which fostered my curiosity as a child, there’s not much room left to pat myself on the back. It’s admirable to be self-motivated and to find purpose in working hard for something. But most people are truly doing their absolute best to make it in this world.