Life is entirely a series of random outcomes. You have no choice of who your parents are, you have no choice of what month you're born, what socioeconomic stratum you're born into, your inherent intellectual capacity, your genetic propensity, or your gender, and this is all just at birth.

While hard work can certainly allow you to capitalize on opportunities that come along, you have almost zero ability to create opportunities yourself. My current economic status is exactly because I randomly received an offer and worked my butt off to achieve success. Someone I know who is just as competent as myself isn't nearly as successful simply because he hasn't had the same lucky break. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both worked hard, but both had random chance heavily weighed by who their parents were at birth which allowed them access to computing in a way that wasn't generally available.