If you know what you're doing and can really focus on it, believe you're halfway (you've won half the battle), the rest is just a matter of consistency and keeps learning to get better. The fact is that in modern times hard work is not enough, you have to be smart and wiser in following developments, like it or not, the world has changed (and will always change), the economy is changing, and of course how to achieve wealth / freedom financially also changed.