4/ You need to constantly question/challenge any urban myths/pet theory that does not fit with what you see and experience on the ground. Quit immediately when u find the truth is much uglier than theory, double down when the truth is much more fascinating than theory.
3/ A lot of outlandish success story you see in the press have a strong tinge of survivorship bias in it, even if everything reported was true. And if you follow the script exactly as advertised, u are almost guaranteed to be disappointed.
2/ The truth was much more nuanced than that. Wealth has a lot with your positioning, i.e, getting a share of some scarce asset that is growing quickly in value. Working hard on a very competitive market with commodity kind of pricing is a recipe for disaster.