Rags to riches in three generations is actually a motivational situation.
I call it luck.
Compare to current Russia or Venezuela, where wealth and privilege has also accumulated with the top 1% of 1%; but the only hope for change will be violent revolution.
comparing with the worse case scenario does indeed make us feel good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronfman_family
A rags to riches story that is not luck in my opinion. Every great fortune starts with some entrepreneurial initiative, and often a few broken laws
But hard to call that "luck" by any normal definition of that word
Many try the same and many fail. The fact that only a few make it points to luck. There are trillions of events taking place arounds us daily. Most of them add to little changes that define our future.