It strongly depends on the country you live. I'm understanding in the Philippines hard work repays. Because the Philippines is not a communist or pseudo-communist country. If you live in a Western country like the southern countries in the European Union or Latin America, it's pretty impossible if you don't inherit. The governments, pushed by the multinational companies influencing with their votes, are always a financial laws hoarder. They create tons of new tax laws each year to hinder small and medium sized businesses, forcing many small and medium entrepreneurs to close their activity because it's impossible to fulfil their cumbersome duties. The aim is exactly they want your activity to stay as small as possible, even to fail. If you work for a company headquartered abroad, in my country you are obliged to sign a very expensive currency exchange contract with your bank. If you don't, receiving in your bank account from a legal person headquartered abroad is considered a crime. After signing that expensive contract, you must fill invoices for the foreign company and then a local bill for the sake of R.S.I. If you don't, it's a crime that deserves conviction to jail, according to our penal tax code. As filling invoice and billing for a foreign company faces very cumbersome rules, you get obliged to ask for monthly services of an experienced accountant (whose fees are very high). So if you aren't initially rich or at least wealthy, your business faces thousands of limitations. The only alternative in my country is to get rid of the VAT to work as a physical person (that until now isn't obliged to billing), but in such a case you have a very high tax rates, as you must pay Social Security the double a VAT owner does and in addition, you must pay between the 2 and the 5% of each earning to the municipality. So it's only convenient if you are sure you'll have a good number of paying clients before engaging in an activity such a translator for companies headquartered abroad or such a tutor, etc., etc., etc.
