Won't lie, I have a hard time taking any sort of hard work advice from a former TV star worth 450 million dollars.

In ironic contrast to your implication, Leno in his prime was regarded as a brutal workaholic by Hollywood/TV standards, doing live show tours during every one of his union-mandated vacation breaks--unlike predecessor Carson. Another "workaholic" in Hollywood: Drew Carey (writer/producer/actor/etc.).

And how much of this presumed worth is now tied up in cars and motorcycles?

By all means, the best advice comes from people who have failed at everything they have tried and are essentially worthless........ success breeds and results from ignorance.

There seems to be a disconnect here between work and reward. You don't get $450 million unless you have done a fair bit of hard work. I would consider successful "self made" people to be experts in "hard work".

Does what Leno say not ring true to you? Regardless of who says it, the message is true.

Hoping I don't light off some people here like rockets, I'm going to simply say what you describe is part of why younger people aren't afraid of "socialism," or at least want a better social safety net.

What are you supposed to think when your elders tell you to work hard, work harder, but working doesn't work?

Especially when the supposedly wiser elder is just a foggy old fogey who doesn't understand?

This guy was 81 when this was shot; he would die a year later, still in office. It's not meant to be political as such; after all, how many of us have run into guys like this running some of our museums? How many of us have complained that such characters drive away the young bloods?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ypSvsg-2Tg

We're transitioning from a growth based economy into a sustainability based economy = problem is, nobody is really sure how to do that. This fogey was raised to believe in hard work and opportunity, but learned quickly that equal opportunity wasn't available to everybody. When there was opportunity, hard workers didn't necessarily reap the rewards that people who worked less hard but were better placed did, usually the other way around. I think the sooner we stop believing in the national / cultural / economic (almost religious) mythology about our country and dig in to solve the real problems with more than just lofty lies, the sooner it will benefit everybody. For us fogeys that aren't influential or wealthy, we're as dependent on a social safety net as you younger guys also have to be right now. That doesn't give you a pass on being assholes about it no matter how much my heart goes out to you. I've tried to open doors and pull people up after me usually while dispensing a few harsh lessons in the process; sometimes it worked, sometimes not. One thing we did learn: you change the broken system from inside if you want real rather than cosmetic change. Force open a door and get busy.

21st Century 'society' tends to look down their nose at individuals who work with their hands as the 'smart money' work with their fingertips on keyboards and spreadsheets etc.

They continue to look down their nose right up until their nose detects that backed up overflowing toilet with Prime #2 ... then they can't act fast enough to call a plumber to fix their shi.y existence and then complain about what they were charged for the 'simple' fix.

He may be worth $450M NOW - when he started he was just a snot nosed kid like anyone else - he somehow found out he could scratch out a living making people laugh and as he got better and better at that craft he began being compensated better and better.

You don't come out of HS and go directly to hosting 'The Tonight Show' - you work and fail thousands of times and pick yourself up thousands more times and try something different to succeed the next time out.

I suspect he pays the mechanics and restoration specialists he deals with well - haven't seen a Earl Sheib quality paint job on anything of Jay's automobiles.

Darn kids these days.

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I know some remarkable young people -- in their 20s -- who are highly skilled in engineering and mechanical knowledge.The work ethic still exists.
However, you are probably not going to get them on a railway or other old iron restoration project. As has been touched on before, they are starting out in life, developing careers, starting their own businesses, starting families, buying homes.
Even if they are interested, they will not be able to be involved in such activities for many years.
That is how it has been in the post-World War II era. We all finally achieved the income to stray into higher end hobbies such as vintage cars, traction engines, antique tractors, railway preservation groups,etc.
Covid has probably changed the landscape, although time will tell in what way. It could make young people more insular, or it could cause them to say the hell with it, and live for now. Here in Ontario one cannot buy a house or nice property for under $700,000, and they are selling at that or bidding wars are happening pushing the prices even higher. People are fleeing urban centres like Toronto for the country and small towns. The question is, do they see a future, or are they buying while they can before things get worse?
I know little about Leno, and have rarely watched him, but he may be partly correct about "hard" work. Look, I know young people making big salaries in "thinking" jobs. However, they can only cash in their education by having a work ethic, and a desire to succeed.
I was at a hydraulic parts supplier a couple of years back. As I parked my car, a pickup parked right beside me. The name on the truck was for a millrighting company. A young fellow got out. He had plenty of tattoos and the look of a care-not 21st century kid. We arrived at the door at the same time, and I told him to go first because he was on the job and I was just working on a personal project. He said no, you go first, I am going to be a while. We had a nice chat. He owned the company and was in the store looking for hydraulic system information. He had a project with an aviation company for landing gear components! He was an amazing young man. Driving home, I thought, with his ethic, the world is out there for his picking.
That young man would be a great asset to any restoration project, but he will simply not be available for the foreseeable future -- he is working hard enough now!