I see a lot of people talking about how they "worked hard to become successful" while other "lazy" people just are not ambitious and want government handouts. 

Of course there are lazy people who take advantage of government programs. No doubt about that. But to imply that working hard equals monetary success seems wrong. There are many jobs (construction worker, teacher, fireman, infantry man in the army, etc) that require a lot of hard work and don't lead to financial success.

We can't all be CEOs. Lets say for a minute that everyone who is struggling financially is in fact lazy, and that you could magically flip a switch making them "ambitious". All those people quit their jobs and become doctors, lawyers, small business owners, etc. How is a lawyer going to get any clients when every other person in town is a lawyer? How is your restaurant going to attract customers when there are only 1000 people in town and 500 of them just opened their own restaurant? Who is going to be a waiter at your restaurant when everyone in town is being "ambitious" and trying to own their own restaurant?

So it seems to me that mathematically, some large percentage of the population needs to be willing to do these jobs AND be compensated at a level that allows them to live a decent life without government assistance. Also, businesses and their entrepreneur owners should be bending over backwards thanking people for working for them at reasonable rates instead of competing with them as entrepreneurs?

What am I missing here?