The #1 message I got from Creativity Inc is the amount of luck involved, something which Catmull acknowledges in the book and even points he might have survivor bias.

Luck: Lucas let them leave as a division rather than just shut them down or have them each choose other divisions.

Luck: They didn't get sold to HP but instead to Jobs

Luck: Jobs was willing to blow 70 million over 4 years on them failing to be a computer company before letting them pivot to movies. Lots of people could probably pull some level of success from being given $70 million+ (though probably not Pixar level success)

Luck: Lassiter didn't get fired earlier for sexual harassment (not in the book)

Luck: Catmull didn't get sued for illegal anti-competitive practices. (not in the book)

Of course I love many Pixar movies and respect the amount of effort and talent that goes into them.