This is so misplaced!
> When I try to copy successful people...
That is your first mistake! Don't copy. You are not them. You are "you". You are different from them. Adapt, don't copy. You should observe successful people and adapt some of their thinking to your situation. Just copying verbatim is not going to help.
> For people who are successful all the time, it is like everything always just clicks.
Because you don't see their failures. They rarely have time to talk about their failures. The motto most successful people follow is "Learn from your and other's mistakes quitely, but brag about your successes".
> People who are successful almost never fail it seems, and when they do, it is temporary.
Because "successful people" don't cry in public. They cry silently alone when no one is watching; gather themselves and start over again. You have not seen how painful it is to be successful and to maintain that success. I have seen people like these in my life.
> Elon Musk has never failed. Bill gates never failed.
Who said that?!? Have you heard of X.com? Microsoft was not an instant success. Microsoft was a software consultancy company for almost a decade before it became "Microsoft". Watch Steve Ballmer's Oxford Union speech and listen carefully when he reveals at what stage he joined Microsoft. That is never mentioned in the story you hear about Microsoft.
> They never stumble.
I don't know where you get this information from. Can you link to the source? The PR hype machine of these big companies, their job is to make the founders look good, always successful people and not failures. So don't go by the stories you read in the media about these super hero founders. It never works that way.
> Do you think it comes down to luck, genes, connections, hard work, etc. I know it is not hard work. Everyone works hard.
You missed a very important item from that list: smart work! Just hard work is not enough. It is hard+smart work, plus getting out and forming connections(they don't happen automagically, you need to cultivate it over many years!) and then comes the luck part. Genes has nothing to do with anything related to success.
> Some say you need 10,000 hours but not all hours are crated equal. It is evident some are getting way more mileage for their hours than others.
Those specific figures that come out of US writers/consultants/advisers/coaches is for click-baity reasons. Don't believe them. It all depends on context and circumstances when it comes to learning. 10,000 hours looks like is just plucked out of thin air to sell more copies of some self-help book.