Just hard work doesn't guarantee wealth anymore.

[Fredomago]

There is no wealth without hardwork, as a matter of fact every rich person you see is hardworking, to you it may look like they are not hard working mearly looking at them, but every wealth come as a result of hardwork. I don't know how you interpret hardwork but I will assure you that hardwork guarantees wealth or success. Because there is no successful man without a story of how he became successful. Hardwork doesn't only mean physical hardwok but we have mental hardwork, a person might be working hard physically to make money while the other person is working hard online and having sleepless night all day long just to make the money, and you now see that one working online as someone who is not hardworking? It's not always like the way you see.

Hard work does not guarantee success and wealth. However, success will never come if we do not work hard and put in our best effort. It can be said that hard work is an essential element and an indispensable foundation if we want to succeed.

It seems that some people believe that someone who spends 14 to 16 hours a day studying, reading books, and sitting in front of a computer isn’t a hard worker. If so, they are mistaken and have completely misunderstood the concept of hard work.

Good point, by putting your focus to whatever that may help you to achieve your goals even you are just reading and spending your time and effort in front of your screen, that counts as hardwork, different people do have different perspectives and views regarding to how you'll find your success, most of the time it's the combination of skills, hardwork and luck that will bring that fruit of success.

[Churchillvv]

 Like he said, hardworking once worked and I can say yeah, in the early 70s and 80s hard work would definitely be a thing to escape a particular social status but however as time pass by it kept shifting from hardworking to craftwork and from craftwork/handwork to headwork now. Time evolved and man changed the goal post for people to score the goals. You must be all three now to be successful, it’s now a matter of combining the power of past, present and future to be able to make something out of life, so hard work only pays off if you put in other things like, inheritance, credibility etc.

I disagree, hard work alone will not make one gain much wealth, no matter what decade you're in.
I dont know how old you are or whether you lived through the 70s or 80s. But according to my grandparents and other elders, they were also hard working people who hardly had any time to rest. Because if they take even one day off, they wont have enough food for that day, let alone become rich.

In any era, if we want to become wealthy, we need to combine hard work, the right mindset, and the ability to seize opportunities. You will never become rich just by working hard.

Did you live in the 70s? Or the 80s of course not, I can tell you from history, facts existing that hardworking men where the rich, physical strength was used to make wealth and hence hardwork was a thing, those who have a high straight to tile the soil got more farm than people who where lazy, so I don’t know where you get all that hut hardwork paid off but yeah this days you have to make use of a lot of attributes to get wealth.

[Orpichukwu]

You need to be both hard-working and smart for you to be able to escape hardship and achieve success in life. It has always not been about hard labour but about who can be more productive in what they are doing. Especially now that we are in a technological era, everyone needs to step up their game if they really want to succeed. You might be smart, but if you don't put enough energy into that smartness, it will be hard to get good results that will really benefit you as you want.

[DanWalker]

Did you live in the 70s? Or the 80s of course not, I can tell you from history, facts existing that hardworking men where the rich, physical strength was used to make wealth and hence hardwork was a thing, those who have a high straight to tile the soil got more farm than people who where lazy, so I don’t know where you get all that hut hardwork paid off but yeah this days you have to make use of a lot of attributes to get wealth.

I am not saying that hard work will not be rewarded, and I also believe that no one can become rich without working hard. However, simply working hard is not enough to become wealthy, and this is true in every economic era, not just ours.

That is why many generation, like our grandparent and parent, have worked tirelessly from early morning until late at night, yet most have still been unable to become wealthy.

Wealth and success only come when we know how to combine hard work, thinking, strategy, and planning...as I said. And now we call those factors smart work.