I don't think I can sustain this conversation without getting extremely personal. I can tell you, for a fact, that you can work yourself to the limits of your humanity with no financial responsibilities or with crushing financial responsibilities. Stop with your conjecture that wealth somehow makes true achievement easy, it insults the notion of achievement.

You clearly haven't been there. I am the son of a lawyer who was dirt fucking poor in law school. He was the son of a pastor and had no money for college, and had to take out loans to go to a small, insignificant religious college in his state. He wasn't smarter than anyone in his class, but he worked harder than everyone. He didn't get into his top law school, but he got into a good law school and continued to work himself to the bone. He took out loans, and he worked as a server in a resturant to keep food on his table. He busted his ass. He got a job at a major law firm, and has since become a marvelous litigator, is a senior partner, and has received national awards for his publications and trials. He has served as chief litigator in settlements in excess of 50 million dollars. As a teenager he had to share a bedroom with his younger sister and take freezing showers every morning, and a McDonald's hamburger was a rare luxury.

I am his son, and obviously I have privilage because of his efforts. I decided I was going to be a doctor. I earned a 3.9 GPA in highschool with 37 college credits while working a part time job at a dominos pizza answering phones. I didn't get many handouts. My folks bought me a Honda Civic, a true gift, so that I could get to and from school and work freely and safely, but they expected me to earn my own spending money. I graduated with a semester's worth of college credit, in addition to normal advanced classes, while working a regular part-time job every night of the week. I got accepted into an elite (top 20 US New and World Reports National Universities) private college, and my parents paid my tuition. I didn't go out and play after the first week. I hunkered down, and worked harder than everyone else. I set the curve on every biology and chemistry test except for 1 in my first 2 semesters in a class of 200+ students. I read every chapter twice, and I would miss lunch and dinner because I was working. Thing's only got more intense when I volunteered for the local EMS service while studying for my MCAT. I would wake up at 6:00 am every morning, eat a packet of uncooked ramen noodles, drink a cup of coffee crystals, and then study in the basement of my house until 10 o'clock at night. Every other day I would go grab a subway foot long sub with all the veggies because I was worried about malnutrition. I did well on my MCAT and got into a top medical school. I kept the same mentality, and passed my basic science tests with honors or high-pass (the bar leaps up). I can tell you now, if you want knowledge, your only limitation is quality text and personal commitment. I again achieved highly, was within the top 10 percent of my class, and matched into a surgical subspecialty. The road to this involved missing weddings, funerals, Christmases, thanksgivings, birthdays... I have spent many Christmases studying text, with no regard for the Holliday. I haven't celebrated thanksgiving since 2012. Today, I often go two weeks while only sleeping in my home bed 5 times because I live at the hospital. I often work 21 day's straight, many shifts lasting more than 30 hours. While totally and utterly exhausted, I am honored to talk to family member at 2:30 AM to describe my role in their loved one's care. Death talks regarding a child at 2:30 in the morning are both invigorating and totally emotionally devastating. I don't pity myself, but It sure as hell isn't easy. I don't have an easy road, and I don't expect one. I don't ask for sympathy, I love what I do, but If you can't appreciate that I commit my life every day to others, and am constantly crushed by my inadequacy because my patients will often die (I am a neurosurgeon in training), then you cannot fathom how much it hurts to see my commit being questioned. I can't fall asleep at night, every night, because I feel like I am failing my patients as I have not pioneered a cure to their cancer, or a solution to their child's brain injury. I am currently joining in research efforts to combat brain cancer, but it doesn't make sleeping easier. I don't struggle for money or food, but I don't have a waking moment that is free from a constricting sense of guilt and obligation to my patients. I need to be better, and smarter.