"Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god …
That, right there, is the difference between the heroes and the nobodies. The difference between people like you and people like me. People like me know that there is no magic. There is only the grind. Work looks like magic to those unwilling to do it.
— Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong, Jason Pargin (64%)
One of the points Jason wants to preach as part of the "lesson" of the book.
Is it true? Yeah, in part. Repetition is required for skill.
Also read it in the context of a city that is unabashedly defined by meritocracy. Billionaires have what they have because they earned it!
Maybe the truth is that it is both - that success at something both requires hard work and dull repetition put in by the individual AND the magic of circumstances beyond that person's control.
Definitely not a point made by this book, at least not at this point.