It's very true that how hard you work doesn't correlate directly with success. That said, learning how to work hard is one of the best things you can do to become successful. Once you master that, you then have to learn from each experience. If some of the things you're doing haven't worked out, try to examine them and figure out where you went wrong. Feel free to post some here for others to chime in.

Also, don't necessarily think not climbing to the top of HN means you're not successful. It can be a popularity contest (Zuck will always make it to the top), and it's also somewhat random. Often the content which makes it to the frontpage was upvoted by friends, or reposted many times, I wouldn't take it too seriously.