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The Maharal (Netzach Yisrael 11) gives the following answer. Avraham was not chosen as an individual just as some sort of reward for what he did. Rather Hashem chose the nation which would descend from Avraham as His nation. Granted, this is in no small part to the credit of Avraham, and we are to this day dependent on the merit of the patriarchs' and matriarchs' good deeds. However, the Torah's silence on Avraham's pre-choice accomplishments is to stress the fact that this was not the main reason for his selection.
The Kuzari (95) discusses the preoccupation with the lineage from Adam to Avraham, through the tzaddikim Noach and Shem. Avraham, he posits, had the correct pedigree to succeed in his spiritual task. The link on the chain directly before Avraham was his father, Terach. Most of what we know about him is from Chazal, who present him as an idol worshipper who apparently partially improved his spiritual performance. Avraham was willing to have his holy son marry only a member of his father's house, even if her nuclear family consisted of idol worshippers. Apparently, Terach had elements of greatness in him or at least pass through him, although they did not find full expression until Avraham.
Going back to the Torah, we see that Avraham's great sojourn to the Land of Cana'an was started by Terach (Bereishit 11:31), who is described as taking Avraham and others with him. Terach was unable to complete the mission, but he blazed the trail, to a certain degree, of his illustrious son. Perhaps part of the reason that Avraham was chosen is that he was able to connect to his father and take the kernel of greatness within his father and perfect it.
Our generation has seen many ba'alei teshuva who rejected the secular lifestyles of their parents and returned to their roots. However, as descendants of Avraham, it is likely in many cases that they did not start from scratch, but tapped into the positive of their direct mothers and fathers as well as their forefathers. They have been able to actualize spiritual journeys that their parents began, and finish them in the Holy Land, whether literally or figuratively.
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
