In terms of financial success, technical skills and know-how cannot overcome poor social skills or lack of connections, no matter how good you are technically.

In terms of financial success, technical skills and know-how cannot overcome poor social skills or lack of connections, no matter how good you are technically. Outside of rare exceptions, social skills and networking are thus inescapable requirements for financial success. Money is by-and-large a social construct that has only limited correlation with quantity or quality of work. In my early years, I unfortunately thought that hard work alone equaled financial success.