Growing up in America, I learned early that working hard is a very different skill from building wealth. Your ability to do the job in front of you is definitely essential (probably the foundation of all growth), but wealth is the end result of the systems where people labor. Creating value is not the same as capturing it, and capturing value isn't the same as holding it. You'd hope that excelling at the first would carry over to the others, but they're almost entirely unique skillsets.
How much of your education has been focused on working hard, and how much of it was about what to do with that work? Most schooling is built around working hard as if it's the complete picture. Tests, grades, performance - all excellent training for the skillset of creating value, but not at all related to being able to capture and hold it.
A key line or quote that deserves its own space. Something worth sitting with.
Continue the essay here. Add as many paragraphs as needed. Each one should earn its place.
Closing paragraph. Land it. Don't summarize — just end somewhere true.