People who work harder simply get more lottery tickets than those that don't work hard. Sure there are rich people who become poor and poor people that become rich, but my point is that the rich person needs less lucky breaks to go their way than someone with a poorer background. The mean expectation of prosperity is higher on average for the wealthy than those that don't have wealth.
Life is filled with randomness. One could acquire all the skills in the world and spend all their time working but then die in a car accident. Probabilistically, you are correct when those that work hard get better returns, but that is simply because they are producing more chances of having fortunate apply to them. There is no guarantee of prosperity and the probabilities are skewed in favor of some and skewed to the detriment of others.
People are not born with a work ethic. They have to learn this. Many people are not lucky enough to acquire the skills and mentoring to develop one. A lot of it depends on where you start. I could have been born in plenty of different environments where I would lack this perspective.
"Life is not" fair is not an excuse for me, but a reality I accept. I understand people can use it as an excuse, but just because the race isn't fair doesn't mean that it is not worth running.
I value the lottery ticket. But that doesn't mean I will ever achieve my goals. I could die in my sleep tonight. And a person who flips burgers who wins the actual lottery on their first try and spends it responsibly fundamentally puts less work in than the burger flipper who acquires new skills who doesn't win but is more prosperous. Something like that happening is unlikely, but still possible.
I don't really care about "habits of successful people" as they are written down by people trying to sell their viewpoint for a quick buck. All I need to do is execute and get me my "lottery" tickets and wait until I win something. Hard work, which probabilistically will pay off, but then again it might not. I could always be on the wrong end of misfortune.
I'm not sure how any of this has no basis in reality. Nothing in the world is a certainty, but the environment does play a role and the initial environment that all people start in is based in randomness and luck.
This is exactly the mindset that makes reaching goals challenging and holds people back in life. A book written 100 years ago can change your life today, but clearly that dead person clearly only cares about making a quick buck and nothing of value to offer.
If you want to add randomness of accidents or lottery as part of how you plan life then sure there is that type of luck. Personally those aren't things that are part of my life plan other then having insurance in case I die young my family will be financially secure.
It's very important to know the difference between the things you can control and those you can't.