Most of them failed at one or most of these:
- They could never get a technical co-founder to work with them
- They were wrong about the market
- They were wrong about design
- They didn't have the means to self-finance their businesses (think Pixar and Next)
- They didn't have the connections
What they had was the college drop-out part and some ideas.
Getting berated or public raked over the coals from a jackass 'founder', but you've got decent $ coming in - some people can justify that to themselves, at least for a while. Expecting people to take that shit when they're working for 'equity'? Have seen that and it's insane. Good thing was/is that I've not seen it much, and haven't seen those situations play out successfully. But... the Apple/Jobs myth was powerful on that part for a long time (probably still is?).
But I didn't get close enough with most of them to know if they too had kids whose paternity they denied. I only have so much time after all.
How many managers model their behaviour upon these fake depictions of success?