[seec]

Almost all "successful" people in white collar jobs are just better sociopaths than the ones below them. That's pretty much it.

Hard work is somewhat necessary at the start to buy you legitimacy (aka school & diploma) but it's not really a big difference maker after that.

In fact, I would say that if you work hard and produce great work this pretty much guarantees that you'll never evolve past a certain level.

I think that's actually the major difference maker for rich people: they got there that way and demonstrate how things work to their children who integrate the concept intuitively.