Recipe for success: He was worth $40 million at 18

A recipe is something that will work for almost anyone under any circumstance, this is an anecdote.

Selling your company to yahoo for an idiotic amount of money was a thing that happened to a few people a while ago, but it is not a thing that you could easily repeat today.

(broadcast.com ? geocities ?)

This guy got very lucky. Sure he worked hard enough and sure he made it count but that goes for any period, it gives you a slight advantage. The environment of the time was in large part the difference between a living and silly money.