I keep seeing forum members make complaints about not getting merits and all. It will be very hypocritical of me to say we shouldn't care about merit and ranking up, but your desire to rank up should lead you in the right direction.
When I came first here I saw the hero and legendary members and their merits. I was thinking that it was very easy just to write a post and get merits on it. But when I started I came to know that it a very difficult and needs a lot of work and knowledge. A time when I got only 3 pr 5 merits in a month and it discouraged me several times but I did not give up and started working now I am a full member but I am not stopping here and I am going to move ahead and my next goal is Hero member which I will achieve one day.
The goal of a business is to make a profit but you can't make a profit if certain things are not done right. If you just pursue profit without thinking about other factors, your business will fail.
I totally agree with you, you make it very clear that the goals did not come very easily. We saw a millionaire who has a huge bank balance, expensive cars, etc. but we did not know his effort for that, If a person fails on the first attempt then he needs to do it again again.