Well, yes and no. The hard way is called “grinding”. It’s what John Turturro’s character does in the film Rounders. While Matt Damon’s character takes his entire bankroll and uses it to play heads up for the highest stakes possible against the most feared player in town and promptly loses it with A-9 versus A-A on an A-9-9 board.
The hard way means that when you finally get the bankroll and skills to go up a level, you take a shot at the next level with an amount which, even if you blow the lot, means you’ll still have enough left to grind another bankroll back up at the lower level. It means playing the higher levels for months, possibly years at break even before you have the skills, courage and bankroll to stay there. Then repeat the process for the next level up. All the while taking money out of your bankroll to live on.