Lots of people work very hard and never make it rich. Working long hours is not a trait unique to very successful people. Therefore, what is unique? Luck.

As far as "living on very little as a grad student", grad students may live on a tight budget but they don't know what poverty means.

I didn't say there was no hard work involved, but the article is not really about the work. It's about these big things that Martine was only able to do because she got very wealthy and very lucky early on.

If you're not already super rich, no amount of hard work is going to let you start a drug company to save your child.

Please don't confuse my dislike for this fawning profile with dislike of Martine. My whole point is that this article nothing but sycophantic fluff, and as a result I don't know Martine at all really. The most insightful thing in this whole article is that she started a weird cult.