The amount of success one finds in life is probably some combination of luck, effort, smarts, and appetite for risk / ability to take risks. I think most would agree that you can determine how much effort you put in and you can study hard to get at least some amount of domain expertise. It seems like your father likely ignores that people do not get to choose what family situation they are born into, what skin color they have, or what gender they are. All of these factors affect things like your economic level of support and your ability to take career risks, which in turn has a big effect on your ability to be successful (assuming we define successful as making a lot of money).
I see luck even within those fundamentals. I'm pretty successful, and I'm aware of how generally lazy and procrastinating I am. Perhaps it's Imposter Syndrome, but while I can point to some areas where my work ethic or effort is greater than some, I definitely don't think these are better than some other friends and peers that I'm clearly more successful than. I just got lucky, more than once.
