[rwc]

I agree, and my comment is not to diminish yours in any way.

But...

Perhaps it's confirmation bias, it seems more and more comments on HN have acknowledged the inescapable role of luck in the success of these leaders' ascent.

It's difficult to reconcile, though, because we all want to be in control of our own destinies. Articles that lionize the Ellison/Gates/etc. of the world just feed that "I can do it too" mentality.

How many people here actually do have the capacity to be one of these high-caliber leaders but never have the opportunity because the planets don't align just right?

[joshmarlow]

Playing on your point of luck - I recall reading in a biography of Gates that his mother was on a charity committee with the exec at IBM that was tasked with outsourcing development of an OS for the IBM PC. Anyway, they got the contract, provided DOS to IBM - and compatible vendors - and the rest is history. We don't know - of course - how much that pre-existing relationship influenced IBM's decision and we don't know if Microsoft would have had the explosive growth they did without that contract, but it definitely looks like the stars aligned.

[fhood]

Sure luck is present, but there are people that are just good at it and would probably succeed regardless. Gates, Musk and Jobs come to mind.