I think to really get at this you need to understand that eastern culture is not about glorification of the individual like western culture is. Couple that with the above comment, I believe that a large majority of immigrant parents, who came to the US with a few hundred dollars and barely speaking english, want their children to live stress free lives. They took a lot of risk coming to the US, and worked harder than most of us will probably know. We are the benefactors of their hard work.

If you had next to nothing for resources and don't have old family wealth, how would you try to help your children live a better life? I don't think you'd go teach them the Lean Startup method. You'd probably use what you had available to you. Go to school. And since you're there, you might as well make the most of it. One thing you can make your children do is study hard. Don't understand something? repeat it as many times as necessary to memorize it.

I don't think necessarily it's about what the "best" way, but rather the most reliable way. I would probably guess that those who worked really hard in school, got outstanding grades, and went to good schools, they are all moderately successful, if not at least comfortable.

Maybe very few hit a home run, but very very very few struck out.