That's not what I'm getting at. You can accumulate >1M net worth just by being an engineer/contractor - no need to get into upper management or socialise with rich people.
Working on acquiring experience early on in your career will accelerate the point where you're making decent money where you're able to save/invest a decent portion of your income.
You don’t need to work hard to acquire that much money as an engineer. You can totally coast and make market salary. The hard part is going to be having the discipline to save and live beneath your means.
You have to work hard to get the job in the first place. A large majority of people can't even get through the basics of learning to code so can't even get a degree or do the basics to get a job as a self learner. To them getting a software engineering job is too much hard work and they instead just continue earning their poor salaries.
I love programming and know a dozen languages. I learned them for fun and didn’t consider it work.
I also know people who know a little Python or JS and can make >$100k a year.
You may have to learn a bare minimum to get in the door, you may consider that hard work or not, but once in, you no longer need to work hard. Sweet talking your boss or jumping jobs will get you way more bang for your buck.
Working on acquiring experience early on in your career will accelerate the point where you're making decent money where you're able to save/invest a decent portion of your income.
Your path doesn't sound widely reproducible.