An unfair advantage does not become fair because its beneficiary worked hard after receiving it.

Later effort does not retroactively justify an earlier head start. Both things can be true: the work was real and the position it was applied from was not earned. We tend to collapse them, because acknowledging the advantage feels like being told the work did not count, and it is not saying that.

You can hold your own effort and your own luck at the same time without the two cancelling. Try naming three advantages you had that were not of your making, without adding but I still worked hard. Then ask what you could do with your current position that would extend something similar to somebody else.