> No one I know who ended up very successful did so by living conservatively and within they're means. They're people who aggressively pursued improving their conditions, often times because they were forced too precisely because they didn't have a savings.

This also seems like bad advice. You can aggressively pursue higher earnings and simultaneously spend conservatively (on anything that does not contribute directly to higher earnings). You seem to be setting up a false dichotomy.

That said, I agree that at least in free market economies, high risk / high reward + tremendous luck is a requirement for extreme wealth generation.