Employment Research Institute's Chief Executive Officer, A. Harrison Barnes, in a webinar discussed that in order to succeed you need to provide more value than you receive.
According to Harrison your rewards will be in direct proportion to the value you provide. This law of economics controls a great deal of what happens in the world. And yet people ignore this most basic law of economics. The result of ignoring the law is instant to gradual failure. In your career if you are providing more value than you receive you will probably have a very good career.
There are many professions in many major cities of the United States where Americans are not hired. That is because they are not willing to work hard. They do not have the motivation to do what it takes. If you do not have the motivation to do what it takes then you are not going to get to where you want to go. Most Americans who are talented enough to become doctors do not become doctors because they are not willing to work incredibly hard to become doctors. People from other countries are willing to do what it takes; they believe that they need to work hard in order to get ahead. They feel they need to produce more than they earn.
One of the most important rules of economics is simply that the economy will generally pay for the value that you provide. In order to advance in society you must respect and understand the law of economics.
The law of economics that is always operating in the background is that you always need to give more than you take. Many people at some point in their lives lose touch of this law and it always does them in. They do not put in the effort needed to really succeed.