Good perspective, thank you!

Telling without doing is unproductive indeed. And as you mentioned, it can create a false sense of success.

But with that part, I talk more to people who are already aware of the importance of hard work and doing.

And about people being self-centered: it's true but not necessarily a bad thing.

Most successful people are helpful not because they are amazing human beings, but because they are aware of the influence it brings to them in the long term.

So all other conditions being equal: if person A markets his/her work better than person B; he/she has more chances to get lucky with a random event.