It's not that rare and a winning lottery ticket is definitely NOT a solid analogy. Over a decade, roughly one quarter of households move up an income quintile. Table 1 is good for a quick overview of the numbers: https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/economic-commentar...
Now income mobility in the US has unfortunately been declining, the American Gini coefficient has been rising and this is a problem. But let's not sensationalize it.
As for hard work, grit, perseverance etc. - I had a teacher in elementary school who always drilled the saying "Work smarter, not harder" into our brains. It's simple advice but she got the priority right. Skills pay the bills. A software engineer or a plumber gets paid a lot more for an hour of their time than a day laborer. The day laborer comes out behind no matter how hard they work. It will always be this way, and anyone would be a fool to ignore it.
So you have to build skills from day one and never stop. That is something which is under your control.
I followed the "work smarter, not harder" creed for many years and it served me well. However, in middle age I came to realize that it's not the whole story. Ultimately if you want to do well in life, there are factors that are outside of your control, and factors that are within it. You are a fool if you don't influence everything you can - so while working smart may be more important than working hard, and the zip code you're born in may be more important than both, you still have to work hard.
You have to do everything and there are no excuses. If you don't someone will eat your lunch sooner or later.
Now income mobility in the US has unfortunately been declining, the American Gini coefficient has been rising and this is a problem. But let's not sensationalize it.
As for hard work, grit, perseverance etc. - I had a teacher in elementary school who always drilled the saying "Work smarter, not harder" into our brains. It's simple advice but she got the priority right. Skills pay the bills. A software engineer or a plumber gets paid a lot more for an hour of their time than a day laborer. The day laborer comes out behind no matter how hard they work. It will always be this way, and anyone would be a fool to ignore it.
So you have to build skills from day one and never stop. That is something which is under your control.
I followed the "work smarter, not harder" creed for many years and it served me well. However, in middle age I came to realize that it's not the whole story. Ultimately if you want to do well in life, there are factors that are outside of your control, and factors that are within it. You are a fool if you don't influence everything you can - so while working smart may be more important than working hard, and the zip code you're born in may be more important than both, you still have to work hard.
You have to do everything and there are no excuses. If you don't someone will eat your lunch sooner or later.