I'm sure that line of thought makes you feel better, but it's pretty demonstrably not the case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory
And since it's all about the determined individual, I also guess women, blacks, latinos, LGBT et al are just lazy or not competent enough as Mark, Gates et co to not have such many billion dollar success stories -- heck even way less million dollar success stories per percentage of the population. Right?
He was born with his star in ascendence, destined to rule over the unruly private lives of every human alive, destined to surround himself with empty mansions so no others may peek upon his divine unicornhood.
He is the first coming of social media ceo-frat-bro-jesus.
praise be unto the billionaires, for they know not what they do; they only do what they are destined to accomplish regardless of their parents sending them to $60,000 per year teenage boarding schools. do not believe you can know them, for they are not fellow humans, they are Greater while we shall always remain Lesser to their unicorn brilliance. Bow, and praise be.
Demonstrate then. "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor
So, the alternative hypothesis is no better if you want to go throwing around that sort of blame.
He wasn't some genius programmer. He created a glorified forum (and in PHP).
He wasn't some genius businessman (evident from his early interviews). He created something at the right time, that got momentum because of that, and that attracted the right people to help make it a success business wise.
Would he have gotten somewhere else if it wasn't for that? Maybe, maybe not.
I don't see anything particularly convincing that he wouldn't have regressed to the mean.
1) self driven
2) loves to build
3) doesn't let things get in their way
4) goals based on their version of the future
5) deep thinkers / intellects
6) holds their own values and priorities
7) evidence driven / scientific
8) conqueror's mindset
9) idea person, doer, dreamer, student, teacher all in one
10) never was about the money, and more about passion
I don't claim this list to be 100% accurate or exhaustive, but the point is there is more than just luck and DNA, and many of these traits are acquirable. The demographic to me says that the chances of becoming that person are higher under those circumstances, but the demographic itself does not directly enable or cause any such success. Just as all presidents were white until Obama, maybe we just need someone to shatter the stereotype.
Personally, what I respect most is their capacity to generate their own philosophies and to then apply them to their products, to their companies, and to their lives. I find people that can do this are successful at any level.
I mean is Mark "deep thinkers / intellects" etc in general? Or it's just a (average) smart college boy who wrote a service that hit the right spots and got viral?
I also know many millionaires (and billionaires) for whom it was always "about the money", and that was their passion.
Yes, many of the traits are shared with average people, as is the trait of being human. This to me only attests to how similar and ordinary and close we really are to those we love to put on high pedestals. How do ordinary people accomplish extra-ordinary feats? To this I suspect combination is key. You could be perfectly capable but not have a dream. You could be a dreamer but lack self motivation... and so on and so forth. And sure, maybe you had it all except for the money to fund yourself. But either way, if we are admitting there is a combination, we're already past the luck hypothesis.