Years ago, I heard Woody Allen say that line, "80% of life is showing up." I think he was trying to be modest, but it's true. On the other hand, I have been around truly talented individuals whom are crazy, shut-ins, had horrid childhoods, or just anti-social. I sometimes think they make up the real talent, but will never get discovered?
What I like about this tech economy is the poor kid can still make a lot of money if they have the right combination of skills, ideas, and salesmanship? My generation was pretty much, going to a in-demand professional school, or having a rich father who would back you. A rich-caring father is still the an important factor though. It seems like poor kids are given one chance of making it big. The rich kid can fail a few times? I gotten more flack for bringing up rich kids, but I grew up in a wealthy/blue collar community.(Weird combination of families.) If you didn't ruin your brain at UC Santa Cruz, and had a somewhat understanding father; you are wealthy right now. I just saw it happen too many times to not be true. I can list rich father success stories at nausium.
The one that kills me is the inventor of the disposable dental pick.(you know--those white tooth picks you see thrown everywhere?). This kid's father invented all the products for this company. This kids father was a dentist and saw the need for consumer dental products. This kid had a sailboat in high school. This kid went to a private college, but was bored. His dad decided set him up in a nice office, a nice car, a nice house, a bigger sailboat, and speedboat, funding, prototypes, the best contacts(networking), and paid help. This kid just needed to --show up--at a few trade show meetings(first class only), and make a marketing pitch to Target. Well, the company, after the Target account is worth millions. The irony is I think the kid moved the company to the Midwest in order to get away from dad? Dad was overly nice, and just wanted to be a part of his son's life?