Kris,
My physical and mental self is a true example that the hard work trope is a LIE. I've abused my body and mind with extreme blue collar and white collar work and I am DEAD ASS BROKE in my mid-forties. Lost my retirement funds multiple times only to have it given to the wealthy elite through schemes and bailouts.
What I have taken from the lesson is that the majority of the companies I've "worked hard" for are benefitting, not me and mine.
Quote:Hard Work Fallacy
This is the argument that states that the outcome is directly proportional to the effort the individual put in. Failure is therefore the result of simply not having put in enough effort. This argument ignores other factors that may be at play. For example, most of the time, who you know is more important than what you know. Or that your unrequited Love Interest isn't dating you because s/he's dating (and satisfied with) someone else. Or that the so-called Self-Made Man did indeed have help from other people, even if it wasn't direct or reserved only for him. It implies that people are rewarded based on the hard work they do, rather than on how valued that hard work is in the particular time and place they live in. (For example: "Homemaking is not real work because you don't get paid for it. You don't get paid for it because housework and taking care of the kids is not that hard.") Or that you may be naturally gifted at something, have to work a bit more at something else, and be completely awful at yet another thing...and that no two people have exactly the same combination of talents.
Contrast Hard Work Hardly Works when the extra effort doesn't achieve much and You Were Trying Too Hard where the extra effort prevents you from succeeding.
Often involves the words, "If I can do it, so can you!"
Common corollaries are the Gambler's Fallacy and the Sunk Cost Fallacy: "If I keep doing A/B/C, or put a little more work into it, I'll get what I want!"
Some tropes that rely on this:
• The American Dream: "In America, any man can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become a success."
• The Dogged Nice Guy: "If I keep telling her how awesome she is, buy her things, hold the door for her, listen to her problems, et cetera, she'll see how awesome I am and become my girlfriend!"
• Japanese Spirit: Persistence and hard work is one of three major values for the concept of "Yamato-Damashii". The idea being that if you work hard enough, your true power will be revealed.
• Rags to Riches: From poor to rich but not necessarily though hard work. Marrying someone who was already wealthy and winning the lottery are all valid examples for this trope.
• The Self-Made Man: Success boasted to be the result of hard work alone with zero favours, assistance (bar early childhood care), or luck.
• Training Montage: By working hard (Training from Hell level hard) you take a level in badass. (Gonna Fly Now from the Rocky Franchise is optional.)
• Underdogs Never Lose: Succeeds as a result of determination, surmounting all the odds no matter how large.
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