This position is one of the widely held cliche that permeate the modern world, cliches that receive wide lip service but are in fact, bunk.
Most importantly this view ignores the fact most people struggle without any success at all. According to this axiom these people should be the pinnacle of humanity all. Yet this is obviously not the case.
In fact it is fairly clear that struggle, particularly struggle without success, makes people not better but worse. When you have to struggle for the most basic necessities of life, changes are you will lean to be crafty and mean as opposed to honest and giving.
Even Mr. Washington only suggests his struggle is more important that his accomplishment because he has the accomplishment to comfort him. If he had ended up as 'strange fruit' in some dusty southern square his struggle would have meant nothing to anyone and therefore success of either kind would be moot.
I believe that this piece of facile wisdom comes from the same source as the old men's glorification of war or a rich man's glorification of poverty. In a three cases, the warm glow of success and survival colour the past with the same golden hues.
I once interviewed a man that had been captured at Dieppe and spent the rest of the war as a German POW. He was full stories of the wonder of the struggle and how it was the best time in his life. But realistically it couldn't have been anything other than scary, uncomfortable and dangerous.
My father grew up dirt poor in the depression with 8 brothers and sisters. Yet to hear him tell it, it was one long episode of the Walton's. But it couldn't have been really.
In closing the best you can say about this statement is that successful people may believe it is true after they achieve their success, but for those who never achieve success, or die in the attempt - it is just so much hot air.
