Regarding Gates: A lot of people can afford to go to Harvard given financial aid. I think the more relevant point to his story is that his parents were so wealthy they could send him to an elite private _middle and high school,_ where he had access to a computer.
yeah, my understanding was that his parents were pretty wealthy; beyond the minimum to give their kids an elite education. My point is just that Gates turned a small fortune in to a large fortune. And while that was certainly a feat; it is rather different from starting middle or even working class and building up even a small fortune.
They say the first million is the hardest. Considering that is my current challenge, that's how I feel. But, I bet that if I didn't already have the skills to land a $100K+/year job, maybe I'd feel that the first hundred grand was the hardest. If I lived in Africa or India, maybe just saving a few hundred bucks would be difficult. Saving even just a year's salary when you aren't making a lot more than what you need to buy minimum food and shelter is a difficult task.
From your comment history, I'd guess you are no more wealthy than I am, and much like me, you are not significantly more wealthy than your parents. Of course, this is just a guess based on little information, but the self-made rich people I know? they do rather than talking about doing.
It's actually fairly rare for people to change from their parent's class. Heck, most of the 'super rich' success stories are people who come from rich parents becoming super rich; I mean, I don't want to disparage Bill Gates achievements; but you need to recognize that he started with parents who could afford to send him to Harvard.
I mean, I think most people agree that a conscientious and hard working person can better their economic situation, but I don't think it's as cut and dried as you seem to think it is. First, going from middle class to upper class requires very different skills than going from abject poverty to the low end of working class and from there to middle class.
It's interesting, 'cause I've lived most of my life as an upper middle class person, but for the last few years I've been living on a working-class salary, as I'm trying to get my business of the ground. It's very different, and I can see how someone who wasn't particularly punctual about, saying, paying bills or tickets on time (something that doesn't matter at all as a sysadmin with a six figure salary) could easily get over their head on a working-class salary. Really, I'd be having a very hard time of it if I didn't have the business with it's reasonably large cashflow to give me a 'bonus' when I get into a really tight spot.