To an extent, absolutely. In a truly competitive market, there will winners and losers. Whether you win or lose is entirely upon your shoulders and how you prepare to meet the challenges.
Today, in the US, there are two factions that are preventing an open competitive market. Unions and their supporters who lobby for laws to restrict the introduction of new technologies to the market in the name of job security. This is very noticeable in the steel industry. The other faction attempts to protect current market players and works to suppress competition arising that would displace current companies, Corporate Protectionism. This is very evident in the Oil and Coal industries, among others. Although these two factions' approach motivations are different, they compliment each other.
Whether someone rises and gains wealth from the current system is almost entirely based upon their own choices, there is a limited number that can rise. Changing the system could allow others to rise and make more from their labors/ideas than they can in the current systems. The current system only limits how much wealth they can generate from their ideas, however, they will make some wealth even in the current system if they create ideas and new products.
While the current system may, in some ways, limit the amount of wealth an individual might gain, it does not prevent them from exercising their own initiative to rise. The only true limit upon any given individual, is the individual.