Answer:
This quote means that the person who wrote this quote doesn't think very highly of himself, and he says that what he has accomplished was because of his own hard work.
That sentence is actually an example of a simile. Similes are known to compare something to another. You can tell whether it's a simile since a simile uses either "like" or "as" in their sentence as they're comparing something.
Answer:
consequently might be a good one
