Probably in developed countries, trying hard might be an option where in poverty means you most likely have cell phone, laptop and roof over your head. But in developing countries like India, where abject poverty its ugly head, the people even are not aware that there are opportunities which could enable them to move up. All they have time and energy to think about is how to get the next piece of meal for their family. This also partly due to social structure which is deliberately designed to keep them that way for the benefit of upper class people.

So what you're saying is that not trying hard will leave them starving, posdibly dead? Sounds like pretty strong incentive to try hard ...

Trying hard to get the next meal... If getting a meal is s being successful then I think we have very different definition of success.

Yes, we do. That's the whole point. You define what success means for you.

That's also why "what you believe shapes what you achieve".

> But not trying at all does guarantee not-success.

It might guarantee less pain.

Some kinds of success are achieved through not doing things. And then we get into the question of "to do" vs. "not to do".

Think of it as a function. Privilege ia the y-intercept, trying hard is the multiplier, doing are all the factors with an x, and success is your desired Y.

Solve the equation and voila. Doing can be negative if your desired Y goes in that direction from your y-intercept. Remember, you can also control which way axes point.

This can be a multivariate function/equation. It can also have multiple dimensions. The important part is that all of it is definable by you.