As a fellow immigrant, can confirm, hard work works. That’s the main reason I came to USA – hard work didn’t feel like it would work back home. Nothing nefariou

As a fellow immigrant, can confirm, hard work works. That’s the main reason I came to USA – hard work didn’t feel like it would work back home. Nothing nefarious, just tall poppy syndrome and general environmental influence or multiplicative factor. In America, with a bit of luck, it feels like 1x hard work produces 2x result. 3x if you’re privileged. At home, it felt like 1x hard work would get 1.3x result. BUT! It is important to realize you’re solving a cold start problem. The hustle and hard work only gets you so far. You have to switch to using leverage once you have it. Do not grind yourself to dust. Yes, dialing back is a luxury. That’s what the hard work was for. Now you can focus on using that position to do more with less. I liken it to running an ultramarathon to get to the start line of the marathon. You now have similar footing to someone who grew up in the social class to which you now belong, just a little later. Good luck. edit: I’m not saying hard work guarantees anything. In life there are no guarantees. But I do think it’s a necessary input. Also there’s studies showing immigrants have the highest class mobility in USA. I’m sure “the immigrant work ethic” has something to do with it. -> https://economics.princeton.edu/working-papers/intergenerational-mobility-of-immigrants-over-two-centuries/ https://economics.princeton.edu/working-papers/intergenerati... At the end of the day, if you want exceptional results, you have to do exceptional things. Such is life. Only 2% of Americans have a PhD. Getting into the top 2% of the population sounds pretty exceptional to me. Doing it in a population you weren’t even born into? Heroic.