[IntFee588]

The "protestant work ethic" promotes this vague notion that labour, toil and suffering on earth brings one closer to god. This is more deeply rooted in western cultures than you'd think and feeds into the "work hard and you'll make it" attitude of western exceptionalism.

Because of this, people have a vested interest in glorifying their own struggle, even if they had circumstances that led to their professional success. They're not going to admit that they had things handed to them on a silver platter or got lucky, they'd think of it as some sort of moral failing. They think success needs to be justified.

[rq1]

It’s not a western value at all as exclusively as you describe it.

[spdionis]

It's a strong value in most of the protestant west.

[rq1]

It’s at least as old as Abrahamic religions.

[pessimizer]

I'm not sure that's true. A lot of Abrahamic religion is about prioritizing prayer over work. Over the physical world in general.

[InitialLastName]

The original Abrahamic religion includes a day where you are expressly prohibited from doing anything that even remotely looks like work _every week_.

[rq1]

The earthy suffering to test your faith is all over the texts and their ethics.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Catholicism, however, changed the focus away from judgement based on what you did towards judgement based on what you believe. I don't know too much about Orthodox Christianity, but I have some vague sense that it is even more focused on belief (and piety) than on the notion of good work being the path to heaven.