Both Cruz and Alger's character, Dick, are working toward the same goal of financial success. They both hold a notion in their head that if they work hard and if they follow the systematic steps they will make it. In America if you are determined to reach the top you have that opportunity and if you equip yourself with the right capabilities you WILL succeed.
Although the path in which they actually reached this goal is different, neither of them got their by "taking the right steps." Dick luckily was repaid for his good deed with a job, while Cruz was granted the job because of his ethnicity and the image of diversity he provided.
The reaction of both men were different. As Dick embraced his good fortune and tackled the job head on,Cruz questioned the reasons for his success. Cruz realized that it wasn't he skills or intelligence that got him where he was, in reality it was his ethnicity.
The stories of these men's success and the reaction they provide to it is different, but in some opinion the idea of raising up and coming out on top, when starting from nothing is similar.