What if hard work isn’t the whole story? In a country where millions of young people are fighting for opportunities, advertising executive Ray Langa is challenging one of society’s most repeated promises: that anyone can achieve anything if they simply believe in themselves and work hard enough.

In his thought-provoking essay, The Field Is Not Level, the Group CEO of Leagas Delaney South Africa offers a more honest perspective on success, confronting the uncomfortable reality that where you start in life can influence how far you go.

For young South Africans navigating education, unemployment and an increasingly competitive job market, his message hits close to home.

The Problem With the Hard-Work Narrative

Growing up, many of us were taught that determination and perseverance would eventually pay off. Study hard, get qualified, work harder than everyone else and success will follow.

But what happens when two equally talented people start from completely different positions?

One has access to quality education, financial support, professional networks and people who understand how opportunities work. The other must figure out the rules while trying to survive, often without knowing which doors to knock on in the first place.

Neither person’s effort is necessarily greater than the other’s. Yet their chances of success can look very different.

Langa argues that recognising this imbalance doesn’t mean dismissing hard work. Instead, it means acknowledging that effort produces different results depending on the opportunities available to you.

It’s a distinction that matters in South Africa, where ambition frequently collides with structural barriers.

Beyond the Matric Pass Rate

South Africa celebrated an 88% National Senior Certificate pass rate for the Class of 2025, a historic achievement. But Langa encourages readers to look beyond the headline.

Approximately 1.2 million children entered Grade 1 in 2014, while around 778,000 full-time learners were in the 2025 Grade 12 class. He also highlights the country’s reading crisis, pointing to findings that 81% of Grade 4 learners did not reach the lowest international reading benchmark in the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.

The challenges continue beyond the classroom. South Africa‘s official unemployment rate stood at 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, rising to 47.4% among young people aged 15 to 34.

These figures illustrate why telling young people that success depends entirely on their attitude can be misleading.

When education, money and professional connections influence access to opportunity, failure cannot always be reduced to a lack of ambition.

The question isn’t whether young people are working hard enough. It’s whether the systems around them give their hard work a fair chance to pay off.

From Sport to the Boardroom: Finding the Unwritten Rules

Langa’s perspective comes from experience. Before entering advertising, he competed seriously in sport, where he learned that talent might earn selection without guaranteeing recognition.

That lesson followed him into business.

After his sporting career ended, he moved into advertising, an industry where he had no obvious advantage or established roadmap. He brought discipline, curiosity and a willingness to contribute, even in rooms where he wasn’t necessarily expected to belong.

What he discovered was that some barriers aren’t marked by a closed door. Sometimes, the problem is that nobody tells you the door exists.

Professional networks, industry language, workplace culture and unwritten expectations can quietly determine who feels entitled to participate and who remains on the outside.

Fifteen years later, Langa leads the company. But rather than presenting his journey as proof that hard work conquers everything, he acknowledges the role of mentorship, timing, opportunity and luck.

His honesty challenges the familiar success story in which individual determination receives all the credit while the people and circumstances that made progress possible disappear from the narrative.

Success Means Opening Doors for Others

Perhaps the most powerful part of Langa’s argument is what happens after someone finally makes it.

For young creatives, aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals trying to break into industries that can feel exclusive, access to one meaningful opportunity can change an entire career.

A recommendation, an introduction, a first job or someone willing to explain the unwritten rules can make a difference.

Langa believes people who reach positions of influence have a responsibility to make those opportunities more accessible to others. That means sharing knowledge, recognising overlooked talent and questioning why success depends so heavily on being fortunate enough to meet the right person.

It’s also a challenge to businesses and leaders: representation alone is not enough if the pathways into leadership remain difficult to navigate.

Personal success becomes more meaningful when it creates opportunities beyond your own career.

Changing the Field, Not Just Playing the Game

For a generation trying to build meaningful lives amid economic uncertainty, Langa’s message offers neither empty motivation nor a promise that circumstances will magically improve.

Instead, he encourages young people to understand how their industries work, develop their abilities, recognise opportunities and pursue spaces they may have been discouraged from entering.

But the responsibility doesn’t end with those trying to get ahead. Institutions and individuals with influence must also examine the barriers that make progress unnecessarily difficult.

The field may not be level, but that doesn’t mean it must remain that way.

For South Africa‘s next generation, perhaps the most important measure of success isn’t simply how far someone travels from their starting point. It’s whether their progress makes the journey a little easier for the person who follows.

And that is where leadership becomes more than personal achievement. It becomes a commitment to changing the game.