I think it also comes off as anecdotal with no good causal relationship. I have no doubt the parent put in a lot of hard work, sacrificed much, and struggled. But I'm not convinced the strategy is repeatable. A saying I like is "the harder I work, the luckier I get." Because hard work gives you the ability to take advantage of opportunities. But at the end of the day there is a combination of hard work and luck. Maybe this is just how the world is, but we're humans so we have the power to shape it, and I think we should make hard work less reliant upon luck. But I think one of the first steps to doing that is recognizing how stochastic the system (both what we can control and what we can't) is. I'm glad this worked out for the parent and I sincerely do not want this comment to undermine their work. But I think we're often too quick to assume a repeatable process and not selection bias.
I think not so much "the harder I work, the luckier I get" as keep working even if you don't get paid much for a while. Which probably is repeatable and you'll likely make money eventually if you bring value to others.
While I do believe in "the harder I work, the luckier I get" mentality, what you said there about "keep working even if you don't get paid much for a while" is the critical factor. I had to stop comparing what I could pay myself versus my peers and even my own post-MBA salary, as I made significantly less for a few years.
