Warren Buffett made a comment to the effect of, even though he's intelligent and worked hard for his money, he still has to consider it luck that he happened to be born in the right circumstances because if he were born in a primitive hunter/gatherer society, he would be at the bottom no matter how smart he was because of his lack of physical strength. We all owe our success and the ability of be successful on the merits of our intelligence and hard work alone to the current structure of society to some extent.